


The Deserted

by Bethadots



Category: Dragon Age, Dragon Age (Comics), Dragon Age (Video Games), Dragon Age: Origins, Dragon Age: Origins - Awakening
Genre: Abandonment, Action/Adventure, Antiva, Crows, Deep Roads, Dragons, Epic quest, F/M, Friendship, Grey Wardens, Magisters, Post-Blight, Rivain, Seheron
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-08-01
Updated: 2015-09-13
Packaged: 2018-04-08 16:48:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 18
Words: 68,195
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4312755
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Bethadots/pseuds/Bethadots
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>King Alistair has left Denerim in the company of pirates on a quest to uncover one of the greatest secrets in the history of Thedas. Meanwhile, his queen has just found the note he left, and she has no intention of staying home and warming the throne for him... (Takes place alongside The Silent Grove comics, but you don't need to have read them)</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Those Who Remain

**Author's Note:**

> This story takes place alongside the events of The Silent Grove (and later, Those Who Speak and Until We Sleep). Don’t worry if you haven’t read the comics though – all you need to know is that King Alistair has run off to Antiva with the pirate queen Isabela in search of his long lost father. Meanwhile back in Ferelden…

Harmony un-crumpled the note in her hand and read it again. The words hadn't changed, but they somehow made her angrier this time. She was supposed to come home to a husband, not a handful of hastily scribbled words.

She wanted to scream. She wanted to throw the candlestick through the mirror. She wanted to tear through the palace and rip apart everything in her wake. But that was behaviour unbecoming of a Hero of Ferelden, let alone a Queen.

A pillow bore the brunt of her temper. Ripping through a Hurlock with her daggers would have been better therapy, but the blight was long over and beggars couldn't be choosers. The air was thick with feathers by the time a maid rushed in to see what was making so much noise.

"Everything all right, Your Majesty?"

Harmony wasn't allowed to show her distress. She was the canary in the cave, the one Ferelden looked to for reassurance. She rolled her shoulders back, took a deep breath and forced her mouth to spread into a reassuring smile. "Just an accident. Sorry about the mess."

* * *

The palace library was empty save for one person. Technically she was a prisoner, but in truth she was one of the few in whom Harmony could confide.

Anora was quiet these days. She didn't twist her hair up anymore; her blonde locks hung in sheets to her waist. She sat with perfect posture, ankles neatly crossed, book held up to her face. She knew Harmony was standing there but pretended not to notice.

"What do you know of Maric?" Harmony asked, pulling up a chair on the opposite side of the table.

"I know it was his indiscretion that put a bastard on the throne," she answered, not looking up from the pages of her Nevarran romance. "Well, that and your ambition."

She was only bitter on some days. Usually it made things harder, but today it seemed strangely fitting.

_You were the one who refused to marry him_ , Harmony felt like saying, but she bit her tongue. They'd been through this countless times. It was understandable; Alistair had been the one to execute her father. It was hard to move on from something like that.

Harmony pulled the note from her pocket and slid it across the table to Ferelden's former queen.

" _I love you. I'm sorry. I need to find out what happened to my father,"_ Anora read aloud.

This was the distance between them. It had started with a thing left unsaid, a secret Alistair held close to his heart, and it had grown into a great chasm. Harmony hadn't even noticed it.

Now she knew. But now it was too late. She was alone.

Anora let out a frustrated sigh. "My father spent two years looking for Maric. He was convinced the disappearance was some Orlesian plot. He burned through half the treasury on the search before we could convince him to come home for the funeral."

"Do you think he's really dead?"

The former queen shrugged. "There's a corpse at the bottom of the sea or there isn't. Either way King Maric is gone. If the man is still alive then he abandoned Ferelden, and that's worse than him dying." You could always count on Anora to speak her mind, at least.

"Did Cailan think he might be alive?" Harmony asked, a tad reluctant to bring up the woman's late husband.

"No," the answer came after a moment's thought. "Cailan had a weakness for legendary tales of lost kings and glorious adventure. If even a part of him thought Maric was still out there, he would have run off on some fool quest to–" Anora stopped herself.

It constantly surprised the both of them how much Maric's two sons had in common.

"You can't go chasing after him," warned Anora. "Ferelden needs you here."

"No, I need to go." Harmony hadn't even noticed her hands curl into clenched fists.

"Harmony…"

"I'm not you, Anora," she snapped. "I don't lounge around the palace _playing_ at being the one in charge while my husband might be in danger."

The slap came out of nowhere. It was sharp and sudden and left Harmony's cheek glowing red. She stared back at the former queen, panting heavily through the sting of it. She didn't retaliate.

Anora's hand trembled as if it had been holding back from doing that for a long time. A part of Harmony was grateful; not many tried to knock sense into her these days. She gave herself a moment to breathe deeply so that her next words would sound calm and confident.

"We fell in love fighting side by side. Whatever's gone wrong here, that's how we'll fix it. I can't let him do this alone," she said, getting to her feet and turning to leave as if nothing had happened.

"You're a fool," Anora scoffed.

Harmony's eyes were cold as she glanced back over her shoulder. "I think you made a better queen too, but it's too late to change that now."

* * *

Teagan's face was supposed to go slack with shock as Harmony told him of the King's disappearance. Instead his eyes softened with guilt.

"You already knew," she sighed as she realised.

"It's not like that, Your Majesty," Teagan spluttered.

Harmony just rolled her eyes. "Don't _Your Majesty_ me, I trusted you." She started pacing the floor, her footsteps echoing through the dark of the empty throne room.

Arl Teagan's voice was a mere whisper. "Look, a few nights ago while you were still off in Highever, I helped him sneak out to a tavern near the docks. He said he was meeting up with an old friend."

_Old friend_ usually meant someone from their Warden days. Last she'd heard, Wynne and Shale were caught up with mage politics in Orlais. Leliana served the Divine now. Oghren was at Vigil's Keep. Morrigan and Sten were both long gone. That left… No, it couldn't be him.

"Yesterday I caught Alistair taking his things from the armoury. He wouldn't say where he was headed. He told me that if anything happened, a sea captain named Isabela would bring word. He put some money aside to pay her."

"Isabela…" Harmony repeated. Alistair had mentioned running into the woman last year in Kirkwall, before all that trouble with the mages. Just how long had he been planning this?

"You know of her?" Teagan asked. She could tell from the quiver in his voice that he was just as uneasy about this as she was.

"Less than I'd like." She didn't think it would do any good to mention the word _pirate_ , though it was certainly on her mind.

"Harmony, you can't just commandeer a ship and follow. Alistair's leaving can be passed off as some diplomatic crisis that needs his attention. But if it looks like his Queen is chasing him… Things in Ferelden are fragile enough."

"I can't let him go Teagan," she argued. No matter what, she wouldn't let him talk her out of this. "I'm the Hero of Ferelden. I can't stay and warm the throne while he puts himself in danger."

He heaved a tired sigh, clearly uncomfortable to find himself in the middle of the situation. There was a long pause before he voiced his advice. "If you insist on following, there are ways you could do it discreetly. Why not head to Vigil's Keep, start your search from there? Whatever you do then it will look like Warden business."

It was a clever notion, she had to admit. "You have a point."

"Maker knows I'm not sure it's best for you to leave so soon after–" He cut himself off before he let himself touch on a sore subject. "But you ended the blight. Surely chasing a King is child's play compared to that. Bring him back to us, my Queen." He clapped a hand to her shoulder reassuringly.

Harmony let herself breathe easy for a moment. At least Ferelden would be in capable hands.

* * *

Bandit, ever the faithful warhound, was still curled up at the foot of the bed when she arrived back at the quarters she shared with Ferelden's king. The mabari had seen better days. His bones creaked audibly as he struggled to his feet, and she could tell it had taken tremendous effort just to stand and greet her.

His tail wagged half-heartedly as he watched her fetch her old equipment from the cupboards. He had that look in his eye, the same one he used to get when he was just a pup and they'd go running through the fields of Highever together. She didn't doubt that he still had the spirit of a warrior willing to follow her to the void and back, but those legs could barely carry him out of the palace these days. This was something she would have to face without him at her side.

"Sorry boy. Not this time."

_You're too old for adventures now, my sweet,_ she wanted to say, but she knew he would understand those words perfectly. She knew they would break his heart.

"I need you here to look after Teagan. All right?" It was a lie, but he believed it. He let out a sad whine and settled back down at the foot of the bed.

The belt needed to be loosened a notch or two, but most of her old things still fit. It would be better this way. She would be unnoticed, unrecognised as she slipped out of the palace in her old travelling cloak. Just a normal person again. A small part of her couldn't wait.

When the time came to say goodbye, Bandit had already drifted back to sleep. His feet twitched as he dreamt, chasing darkspawn and giant rats and who knew what else across the Fade. There was no sense waking him. She smiled at her oldest friend and slipped out the door.

* * *

From the outside, the tavern was everything you'd expect from a watering hole by the docks. Loose shingles clattering on the roof, a rusty sign creaking in the wind, paint peeling off the windows. Through the grimy glass she could see a table full of rowdy dockworkers playing Wicked Grace. Two of the men broke into a brawl over the outcome of their last hand, nobody batted an eyelid.

Harmony was still deciding whether or not it would be a good idea to enter when the very man she was looking for burst out and stumbled into the nearest alleyway, already unbuttoning his trousers ready to take a piss. Staying silent, she followed after him.

She plucked a pebble from the ground and threw it past her target. It ricocheted off the wall and bounced off into the darkness. As the man looked away toward the source of the noise, she took her chance to move in from behind. He barely had time to face her before she had her dagger resting at his throat.

"Don't tell me you've gone soft after all these years?" Harmony teased.

That trademark wicked grin spread across Zevran Arainai's lips, and it was only then that Harmony noticed his dagger was already resting against her stomach. "Me? Soft? Unthinkable," he countered.

Inside, the place was just as bad as it looked - and there was the smell to contend with too. The regulars did nothing but unload cargo all day, and most stank of fish and sweat. Her Antivan friend didn't seem to notice.

"So what brings you here of all places?" she asked him as he returned from the bar carrying a pint in each hand. The mugs looked like they might have been made from clear glass once upon a time, but now they were decidedly brown.

"You'd be amazed at what one can learn when one buys the drinks in a place like this. So many ill-treated employees come to drown their sorrows. It's terribly good for business," he answered, sliding her drink across the table. He hadn't changed a bit. He was already smirking at the look on Harmony's face as she pretended the shady inn didn't bother her.

"I meant, what brings you to Ferelden?"

"I came to bring your husband some information." He paused to take a deep swig from his mug. "But then you knew that, you're just toying with me."

Harmony decided there was nothing for it but to follow suit. She tipped her head back and drank. She did her best not to pull a face at the taste of it as she wiped the froth from her lip. "You came all this way and you weren't even going to pay me a visit?"

"My dear Grey Warden, you know I could never pass through the capital without giving you my regards. I simply thought you might need a few days to cool down first," he said with a shrug. He had known then, that Alistair was about to disappear on her.

"I'm not angry, Zev," she assured him. "Not with you anyway."

"No?" he chuckled. "You haven't put a blade to my throat since the time I tried to have you killed."

"I'm not angry because you're going to tell me where he went. And because you're going to come with me to get him back," Harmony said, an expression on her face that all of her former companions knew better than to argue with.

"Well," Zevran's mouth spread into a mischievous grin, "this is starting to sound like the makings of an adventure."


	2. Journey to the Keep

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Harmony and Zevran begin their journey, accompanied by some unwanted bodyguards.

It wasn't far from dawn as Harmony and Zevran managed to sneak out of the palace stables on borrowed horses. The night air was crisp and clear as they rode out through the city's west gate. They were just starting to breathe easy, thinking the theft had gone unnoticed, when four knights in plain armour rode out from the gatehouse and trotted to catch up to them.

They weren't wearing their usual uniforms but Harmony recognised them straight away as her personal bodyguards. Ser Ellin was their leader, a formidable woman, stern face hidden behind a silverite helm. The other three were cycled through every few weeks, most not managing to meet Ellin's high expectations for long. Currently they were Iwan, Antain and Leith. Harmony knew little of them save that Ellin had deemed them trustworthy enough to protect her. For now.

"Let me guess, Teagan sent you?" she asked the knights, trying but failing to not sound disgruntled.

Ser Ellin nodded once.

"Sorry, Your Majesty. Orders are orders," Leith apologised. Ellin glanced in his direction briefly, but said nothing. Harmony had a feeling that meant that Leith wouldn't be sticking around for long.

There was no point in arguing; it would only delay them further. Instead she sighed in resignation and carried on down the road. At least they'd had the foresight to wear simple splintmail instead of their usual regalia. The Queen was eager to reach Vigil's Keep as quickly as possible, and the best way to do that was to go unrecognised.

They rode hard through the day, only stopping as often as the horses needed. Zevran had been overjoyed at the sight of his palace thoroughbred at the start of their journey, but hours unending in the saddle and Harmony's relentless pace soon stomped out his enthusiasm.

"I'm starting to wonder why we spent so much time wishing we had some of these during the blight. I don't think I'll be able to sit down for a week."

A crude joke popped into Harmony's mind, but she kept it to herself. The elf didn't need encouraging.

* * *

They stopped at a stream to water the horses and give them a decent rest. It was late afternoon by then and the winter sun was a glaring orange as it sank behind the hilltops. Harmony's mount was a chestnut colour that matched the sunset. She couldn't help but be reminded of Alistair's coppery hair as she stood beside it in the stream, stroking its mane as it drank.

"Remind me again why Teagan insists on sending a babysitter to mind the Hero of Ferelden?" Zevran asked, nodding to their guards.

The answer came not from Harmony, but Ser Ellin. "Even a capable fighter can meet bad luck on the road. Her Majesty might be a Hero of Ferelden, but she is also its Queen. She must be protected at all times." She took the helm off as she spoke. Harmony couldn't help but laugh as Zevran's eyes went wide with shock. He had only just realised he was speaking to a woman.

"Zevran, meet Ser Ellin. You can roll your eyes at her as much as you like, she won't back off. I've tried."

Ellin was pretty in spite of her mannish frame. She had long lashes, high cheekbones and amber coloured curls that were swept back into a low ponytail. "What Her Majesty sees as an imposition, I see as the duty I was charged with when appointed her protector," she told him sternly.

"She's upset because she didn't get to wear her pretty royal guard armour," Harmony teased.

"Armour is armour. It's all the same to me, but you're safer on the road when people can see the Theirin banner above your head. The safer you are, the less I need to worry."

"Just admit it, we're making good time without well-wishers from every farmhold popping out to greet us," the Queen argued.

The guardswoman's voice was deadpan as she responded, "You'd make even better time if we fired you from a ballista. That doesn't make it the best option."

A quiet smile swept over Zevran's face. "I had no idea Ferelden kept such lovely women hidden under such unflattering armour."

Harmony thought she saw the slightest blush begin to creep across Ser Ellin's cheeks as the woman lowered her helm back over her head. Ellin was humourless, and dutiful to a fault. Not the type to respond well to Antivan flattery. Watching Zevran annoy the patience out of the woman who was constantly breathing down her neck would probably make for a decent bit of entertainment the rest of the way to Vigil's Keep.

They left the stream on foot, having decided to give the horses a rest from their passengers for a while. Back up on the road they were surprised find a group of armed men blocking their path.

"Not leaving so soon, are you?" one of them called.

Harmony counted eight, each clad in mismatching sets of rusting armour. Everything about them screamed highwaymen, all scars and tattoos, not a bar of soap shared between them. Their weapons were already drawn. Her horse began throwing its head and stamping its feet, making it difficult to hold on to the reins. Its instincts were already telling it to flee.

"Don't talk to them, just move on," Ellin instructed, stepping forward to make sure that she was between her queen and the ruffians.

Insulted by that, one of them plucked a rock from the ground and hurled it. Instead of hitting Ellin though, it grazed Iwan on the cheek. Blood dribbled down his face. He went to draw his sword but Ellin put a hand on his arm to stop him.

They should have mounted while they had the chance. Now the horses were unsettled. They weren't battle-hardened chevalier's steeds; they were bred for speed alone. If a fight broke out, they would surely try to bolt.

"Why attack us?" Ellin demanded. "We've done nothing to you."

The one who seemed to be their leader stepped forwards. "This here's our stream. It's twenty silver a head if you want to drink from it. Fifty per horse."

One of the others kicked at the ground, rolling a small pile of dung away from him. "Their horses done their business everywhere too," he said with feigned disgust.

The leader shook his head. "Tsk tsk, there's a fine for that, you know. One sovereign per horse. All in all that's… eighteen sovereigns you owe us."

"And we thought Oghren was bad at counting," Harmony muttered to Zevran.

"This land belongs to the Arling of Amaranthine. You have no claim to it. Let us pass," Ellin barked, temper clearly fraying.

"Keep a civil tongue, friend. You're more outnumbered than you realise." His impish grin did nothing to mask the implied threat.

Harmony glanced down to the stream then out at the trees, but saw nobody. If these men truly did have others waiting, they were hidden well. More likely it was just a bluff. She was beginning to worry, not for her own safety but for theirs. They thought they were threatening any old band of adventurers. They had no idea who was in front of them.

"We'll take it in trade if you haven't the money. You could leave us a horse. Or some of your equipment." The man looked at Harmony for a moment and arched an eyebrow lasciviously. "Or that woman of yours, she's not too bad on the eyes."

Knowing Ellin, the plan until that point had been to ignore the men, push through their little roadblock and report them to the proper authorities as soon as possible. But if there was one thing those toads could have done to make the guardswoman turn on them, it was threaten her charge.

There was scarcely time to blink before Ellin's greatsword was in her hands, white steel glinting in the sunlight. She didn't waste a second before she charged in at them.

To draw the blade she'd had to drop her horse's reins. Now the creature reared up in panic and started for the stream. Iwan, Antain and Leith followed suit, and in the briefest instant the whole situation dissolved into clashing blades and panicked mounts.

Harmony let go of her chesnut mare and patted it on the rump to send it running. Catching it later wouldn't be an easy feat, but it was better than watching the poor thing injure itself in the fray.

"I sense an  _I told you so_  moment coming soon," she sighed, drawing her daggers.

"You stay back," she heard Ellin roar over the sound of her blade clashing with one of theirs. Harmony scowled, though she hardly planned on heeding those words.

In the corner of her eye she saw a flurry of arrows coming towards them. One would have hit Zevran in the neck but she yanked on the straps of his leather armour just quick enough that it skimmed past his nose. Her eyes followed the course of the arrows back to the trees where four men with bows stood to pick her party off from the side. Zevran saw them too.

"We need an Arainai special. You game?"

"Always," Zevran answered with a devious chuckle. He pulled a flask from his belt and threw it to the ground. A flash of smoke covered their escape into the trees, and by the time it had cleared the two rogues were nowhere to be seen.

She felt like herself again, sprinting through the bushes in secret to flank the enemy. It brought back memories she hadn't realised she missed. A moment later, the four archers let out brief yelps of pain and dropped to their knees in unison, dead too soon to be surprised by the dagger tips protruding from their chests.

Back on the road, her bodyguards had made short work of the rest of their attackers, and it wasn't long before most of them were dead. Only two of them had the sense to drop their blades and make a run for it.

Harmony found herself breathing so hard from the effort of it that she was woozy. She bent forwards, hands on her knees, staring down at the corpse on its stomach in front of her.

"I'll check the bodies," Zevran was saying. "They seem a shabby bunch so I doubt this was personal, but one never knows when-" He cut himself off as Harmony sank to the ground. "Were you hit?"

She shook her head. "No, just… out of… practice…" she panted, feeling ridiculous. She hadn't realised she had become so unfit. She expected Zevran to make fun of her for it, but instead he nodded and left to search their attackers.

Ellin walked over and sat in the grass beside the Queen. She didn't rub it in, but they both knew she was thinking that the attack would never have occurred had the royal banner been flying.

"I hadn't seen you fight before." The guardswoman nodded to the corpses with reserved approval.

"You still haven't. That was just sneaking," Harmony pointed out.

Ellin leaned over, pulled the daggers from the backs of the two archers, wiped them off in the grass and handed them back. "I liked the part where you were out of the fray."

"I thought you might."

They watched as the three guardsmen hurried to catch the spooked horses.

"Antain was slow on the draw, don't you think? And Iwan's got a cut on his face. These riff-raff shouldn't have been able to touch a royal guard." Ellin complained.

"Maker's breath. If I'd had you with us during the blight I think we would have ended up storming Denerim alone." Harmony couldn't help but laugh. "Then again, you probably would've just glared disapprovingly at the archdemon and sent him home."

Ellin pursed her lips at the comment but said nothing.

The bandits had little to their name, but Zevran pocketed what few coins they carried on principle. From the shabbiness of their equipment and their inexperience on the field, all agreed that these were simple highwaymen with no motive other than desperation.

Harmony was troubled though, to find herself so wearied by the ordeal. A seed of doubt took root in her mind; what if her body let her down and she found herself unable to help Alistair because of it? It was looking like she might have to rely on her friends more than she wanted to. She could only hope with all her heart that they wouldn't ask the question she wasn't ready to answer.

* * *

It was late by the time they reached Vigil's Keep, and there was nobody to greet them but the night watch. Honestly, she preferred it that way. The night was misty, the Keep's towers shrouded from view, but Harmony could still feel those ancient stone walls looming above her.

"Should we tell the Seneschal you've arrived?" one of the night watchmen asked.

Harmony threw him the reins of her horse as she dismounted. "Let him sleep. I'll see him in the morning."

"As you wish, Warden Commander."

Ah yes. She'd almost forgotten that this place had her shackled to a different title.

Soon she was in her bedchamber, lying on that familiar four-poster bed that had been hers during the months following the blight. She was thankful that the journey north had left her body exhausted, or her mind would never have given her the peace to sleep. There wasn't much time to think of her missing husband before she was unconscious.

"Alistair, you ass," she muttered under her breath, drifting back through her memories as she slowly sank into a restless slumber.

* * *

_Harmony woke with a start, sitting up and desperately gasping for air as if she'd just resurfaced from deep water. Alistair was in her tent now, crouched beside her looking uncharacteristically serious._

" _Easy. It's just a bad dream," he said knowingly._

_That was putting it mildly. She had been face to face with a dragon. Only it wasn't a dragon, not really. It was a cruel, twisted imitation of a dragon. Rotting flesh, wriggling with maggots, dripping evil and darkness, arranged into the shape of a dragon. It roared so loudly, so terribly, that she felt her soul shake._

_Harmony felt like a child, so weak and small in the face of her nightmares. Without thinking she threw her arms around his waist and buried her face in his chest, trying desperately not to cry. He seemed taken aback at first, but then he wrapped an arm around her and held her close._

" _It felt so real," she whimpered, clinging ever so tightly. It was madness, she barely knew the man, but just then it seemed like he was the only person left alive she could trust._

" _Well it is real, sort of. Part of being a Grey Warden is being able to hear the darkspawn. That's what your dream was. Hearing them. The archdemon, it... talks to the horde, and we feel it just as they do. That's why we know this is really a Blight."_

_She pulled away, ashamed to look at him._

" _When I heard you crying in your sleep I thought I should come in and tell you."_

" _Thank you, Alistair. I appreciate it," she told him, staring at the ground, cursing herself for being so weak in that moment._

* * *

It was eight years, one archdemon, a wedding and a coronation later. She'd always thought things would be easier by now.


	3. Into the Darkness

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Harmony catches up with some friends in the Wardens and Nathaniel Howe comes up with a plan for her to leave Amaranthine unseen.

It was still dark when Harmony woke. Sunrise was an hour or two away but her eyes refused to stay closed any longer. Ellin herself was stood outside the door. Of course she was. The woman would never trust Iwan, Antain or Leith to stay awake through last watch.

"I'm heading to the courtyard to train. You coming?" Harmony asked as she stepped out, already dressed her leather armour, her daggers strapped to her back.

"Of course, Your Majesty." The woman had repeatedly been given permission to call her Harmony, but still clung to the title. Titles were proper, and so was Ellin.

There was nobody around as they descended the steps of the tower. It was that beautiful time of day when all was still and quiet. No decisions to make. No crises to solve yet. Just time to think, and to prepare for the journey ahead. Or so Harmony hoped, until Ser Ellin let out an awkward cough.

"Your Majesty, about this elven friend of yours. Should I be worried?"

"Is it time for the Zevran talk already?" Harmony forced a disinterested sigh. "Let's see… He's not from Ferelden. He's a trained killer. He's not the sort of man a lady of my stature should be associating with. You're not sure you trust his intentions around the wife of your King. And his lewd comments are insufferable." It surprised her how much she sounded like Wynne as she listed the elf's faults. "Did I miss anything?"

"I think that about covers it."

"Look, Zevran's saved my life more times than I can count. He's a dear friend, that's all he's ever been. He helped to defeat the blight and that makes him a friend to Ferelden as well. You needn't worry about him or his intentions. He's a good man."

"I understand." The words seemed to put Ellin at ease.

Harmony's mouth spread into a wicked grin. "Besides, the one time he actually tried to kill me it was a really botched job. My dog tossed him about like a rag doll."

Ellin pursed her lips but didn't rise to the bait. It seemed four years of guarding Harmony had at least left her with the sense to know when to drop a subject.

* * *

Down in the courtyard they found a lone Warden firing arrows at a training dummy. The aim was deadly, each shot piercing the dummy near the centre of its chest. It was especially impressive considering it was still mostly dark out.

The man holding the bow hadn't changed. He knew he was being watched from the doorstep but didn't lose focus for a second until his quiver was empty. Then he brushed a strand of ebony hair from his eyes and nodded to Harmony.

"Nathaniel," she called.

"It's good to see you," he answered, voice as gravelly as ever. "Who's your friend?"

"My shadow, you mean? This is Ser Ellin."

"My lady." Nathaniel gave the guardswoman a courtly bow. Ellin gave a brief salute and stood at attention to the side of the firing line.

"Isn't it a bit early for target practice?" Harmony asked as the man walked forward to retrieve his arrows.

He shrugged. "It takes me a while to adjust when I've been in the Deep Roads. That last expedition took months, I'm still happier to get my practice in while it's dark."

Harmony waited for her friend to be clear of the target, then pulled one of her knives from her belt and sent it soaring. Straight away she could feel it was a bad throw. It bumped handle-first into the dummy's leg then dropped to the ground.

" _Maldición!"_ she muttered. Zevran had taught her to fling knives like an assassin. Along the way she'd picked up the Antivan curses to match.

Nathaniel slotted the arrows back in his quiver. "We've seen less and less of you at Vigil's Keep these last few months. The recruits are starting to think you don't care."

She felt a pang of guilt. It was understood that Alistair's Queen had other duties that took her from Vigil's Keep. More often than not she was more a figurehead than a leader these days. Nathaniel and the others got by, but it still felt like letting them down.

"I was in Highever for a while. There's been a lot happening," she answered vaguely. A hasty subject change was in order. "Speaking of which, did you know my brother won't stop talking about you?"

"Ah, that. We met again recently." He was clearly embarrassed by the news.

"You saved his life, Nathaniel."

He shook his head. "I did what any Warden would have done."

"Fergus is my last living relative. I owe you a great debt," she assured him with a pat on the shoulder.

She'd meant them as words of praise, but their history was too complex for him to hear it that way. Nathaniel's mouth hovered open a moment as if he had something to say, instead he sighed, turned back to the dummy and loosed another arrow.

Eight years wasn't long when it came to loss of family. A part of each of them was still in mourning. They'd become friends in spite of their lost fathers, yet beneath that friendship there would always be painful truths left unspoken.

She smiled softly as he took aim once again. "That's the pose you should make when my brother commissions your statue," she teased, hoping to coax him back to a good mood.

Nathaniel lowered his bow and looked at her seriously. "How long can we expect you to stay this time, Commander?"

"I was planning to spend a few weeks here training the new recruits, but something's come up. I need a ship."

"There are no ships in Denerim?"

Harmony pulled a second knife from her belt. She lifted it to eye-level to help her aim. "Everyone knows Amaranthine is the gem of the Waking Sea," she said with mock awe. The knife flew. A strike to the seam in the dummy's right shoulder. Sand and stuffing poured from the tear she had caused. Getting warmer.

Ellin piped up. "Arl Teagan made her promise to make it look like she was leaving on Warden business so the country doesn't think she's deserted them."

"And where are you really going?" There was worry in that tone.

"Antiva, from the sounds of things."

Nathaniel arched an eyebrow. "Do I want to know?"

"Probably not." Besides, Harmony didn't want to talk about it. Talking only brought Alistair to mind, and the thought of him left her unsure if she wanted to sob or hit things.

"Listen. I'll make you a bargain," he offered. "Spend the day with your recruits. They deserve some face-time with the Commander. Then see me tonight in the study. I think I have a way for you to reach Antiva without anyone seeing you leave the Keep, if that's what you really want."

"All right, Howe. It's a deal." At that, she pulled her last knife from her belt and sent it soaring across the courtyard. It whistled through the air and struck the dummy in the forehead with a satisfying thud. A throw even an Antivan Crow would be proud of. Perhaps her skills hadn't deserted her just yet.

* * *

As agreed, Harmony spent the day with her recruits. She watched them train and offered her advice. She inspected the grounds and she took some time to get to know the unfamiliar faces. They were showing a lot of promise; Nathaniel had done a fine job.

She was happy to see that all was well, but for Harmony the place felt empty. The faces that once made her feel at home here had mostly gone. Velanna had vanished without a trace chasing the ghost of her sister. Justice and Anders had been forced to run to Kirkwall. Their joining together had created a spark and begun a fire across much of Thedas.

Then there was Sigrun. The last Legionnaire had sworn to die fighting darkspawn, every couple of years she left for the Deep Roads to meet that fate. Usually she returned to the Keep in the night without saying a word. This time months had passed with no sign. Perhaps she was truly gone.

Another pang of guilt. Perhaps the Commander should have been around to stop her.

Evening had fallen by the time the Warden recruits and the Seneschal ran out of things requiring her attention. That left just enough time to pay a visit to some old friends.

"I was wondering when you'd stop by," Felsi said with a sideways smile as the door swung open. She took Harmony by the arm and pulled her in out of the cold. "They're through there," she said, shoving Ferelden's Queen into the sitting room.

This was the house that Harmony had granted to Oghren. It sat within the ground of Vigil's Keep; close enough for the dwarf to continue being a Warden and large enough to house his wife and child.

There was a roaring fire and a collection of mismatched armchairs; some sized for humans, some sized for dwarves. Oghren sat with his feet resting on a low table, and she was surprised to find Zevran beside the fireplace, leaning into the wall.

"So then I say, 'Nobody touches Oghren's junk and lives!' and I run at him," the dwarf was saying enthusiastically.

Zevran let out a snort of laughter before he looked up and noticed Harmony. "My dear Grey Warden. Oghren here has just been telling of your adventures here when the darkspawn were still about."

"Only the good parts, don't worry," the dwarf assured her.

"Of course." Harmony knew that Oghren's idea of  _the good parts_  meant the parts where he was killing things, and that the politics and intrigue of those times would be gone entirely from the telling.

Her friend had more beard than she remembered, and he looked smaller without his heavy plate on. There was a contented smile on his face as he reclined in his chair, rosy-cheeked and tipsy, mug in hand.

"It's good to see you, Your Magnificencyfullyness," he slurred.

She laughed. "Just Harmony will do. You're looking well, Oghren." She was too polite to add that he also smelled better than usual. Having his wife close by was certainly doing him some good.

"How are you settling in, Felsi?" Harmony asked as the woman shuffled in behind her.

"Beats working in a tavern," she answered with a cheerful shrug. As Harmony crossed the room to join Zevran by the fire, she wondered privately if living with Oghren and working in a tavern could be all that different.

"Papa," a high-pitched voice called out from the next room.

"Wait till you see this," Zevran muttered, clearly trying to suppress a smirk.

A stout little girl waddled in through the doorway, barely tall enough to reach Harmony's hip. The hair was flame red and tied into pigtail braids. She was carrying a war axe, not a child-size plaything made from wood, but a real one with a steel head. It took both the girl's hands to carry it, and she couldn't lift it higher than her own elbows, but the look of determination on her face left no doubt as to whose daughter she was.

"Papa, you said we could play today," she whined at Oghren.

"That's a toy?" Harmony arched an eyebrow.

"It's blunted!" Oghren said indignantly.

Felsi rested a hand on her daughter's shoulder. "This little lady is Mona. Oghren wanted to name her Harmony, but he couldn't spell it."

"Neither could you, woman," the warrior grunted.

Harmony gave a warm smile and a nod. "It's nice to finally meet you, Mona." She was so happy to see Oghren's family all together that tears began to prick at her eyes. Family was a privilege afforded few Wardens.

"Watch this," said Zevran, and he knelt down beside the little dwarf girl. "Mona, tell your uncle Zev what you'd like to be when you grow up."

"I want to be a 'sassin!" she replied with great enthusiasm.

Oghren's brow knitted into a serious frown. "Warrior. War-ree-or," he corrected, enunciating the word as if saying it slowly would change the girl's mind.

Mona shook her head and repeated, "'Sassin."

The elf grinned smugly. "My work here is done."

"Sodding Crow," was Oghren's only response.

* * *

Nathaniel unrolled the map so that it lay flat on the table. He set his candlestick down on one corner to hold it open, and placed a finger on Vigil's Keep.

"These are the tunnels we sealed up when you first took command here. When the First Warden asked us to travel to the Primitive Thaig discovered by explorers from Kirkwall, I had my suspicions that the tunnels here might go all the way under the Waking Sea. Voldrik let my expedition through and resealed it behind us."

"You were right." Harmony realised, tracing her finger along the road. It snaked beneath Brandel's Reach and ended up in the Free Marches.

"You could get all the way to the Ostwick without anybody seeing you leave the Keep." Nathaniel took a step back to make room for Ellin, Zevran and Oghren to pore over the map.

"It wouldn't be hard to take ship from there to Antiva City. It's a common stop on the trade route from Val Royeaux," Zevran offered.

"Oh aye, show up on some Orlesian boat full of fancy cheeses? You won't need to look for Alistair, he'll find you," Oghren jested.

"That's  _if_  you want to risk the Deep Roads," Nathaniel continued. "I don't need to remind you that the place is crawling with spiders, stalkers, darkspawn… variations on those themes. Not to mention the things we can't talk about in front of…" He nodded to Ellin and Zevran. Grey Warden business in recent years had taken a turn for the strange. Deep road happenings in this part of Thedas had attracted the attention of the First Warden himself. Such things weren't for the ears of outsiders.

"You'll lend me your maps?" Harmony asked him.

Nathaniel looked her in the eyes. "I can do better than that. I can lead you there myself."

"You'd do that?"

Ellin butted in before he could answer. "This plan is too risky."

Harmony bit her tongue to keep from snapping at the woman. She wasn't some precious little flower ready to wilt at the slightest provocation. She was a fearless dragonslayer. Vanquisher of the blight. Eight feet tall with lightning bolts shooting out of her eyes. She was tired of being treated otherwise. "Not for a Grey Warden," she insisted.

Nathaniel moved to stand beside her. "Not for two Grey Wardens."

"Certainly not for three," Oghren added, banging a fist into his chest.

* * *

Her friends split up to gather their things, reconvening that night atop the stairs that led to the Keep's lower levels.

Harmony could sense an argument coming with Ellin as if there were a brewing storm, the air thick and heavy and the skies ready to start pouring any moment. She had hoped for a chance to slip away from her bodyguard's notice, but the woman seemed to sense as much. The only time Ellin even turned her back on the queen was to mutter some brief instructions to Antain and Iwan. Leith had been conspicuously absent since breakfast; Harmony was beginning to think he'd already been dismissed.

The Keep's stonemason, Voldrik, wasn't pleased to be asked to unseal the gate a second time. "It's supposed to stay shut. The more you fiddle with it, the sooner you'll need a new one," he griped repeatedly as they followed the winding corridors of the ancient cellars. It took the promise of expensive upgrades to appease him.

The dwarven contraption clicked and whirred loudly as the mechanisms within drew it open. Everyone drew their weapons in case any darkspawn swarmed out from the other side. When all that awaited was a cold and empty tunnel, there was a collective sigh of relief.

Harmony marched past the threshold and turned to face her friends. They were all ready to follow, all dressed for war. The only problem was that this didn't feel like anyone's battle but hers. It didn't feel right to be dragging them into this.

"Last chance, Zev. I won't force you to come if you don't want to," she warned the elf.

He just laughed and moved to join her. "Your first trip to Antiva? I wouldn't miss it."

Oghren marched through like he meant business, battle axe in hand. Nathaniel took a torch down from the wall and followed without a word. Harmony didn't ask her Wardens if they wanted to stay behind, she knew they would only take offence.

Then Ellin stepped forwards. "I've sent Sers Iwan, Antain and Leith back to Denerim. They're jumpy and they whine too much. They'd only be a hindrance in the Deep Roads."

"Go with them," Harmony ordered. "I won't risk your life down here."

"I risk my life whether you want me to or not," she snorted. "Duty insists that I guard you wherever you go. I swore as much."

That wasn't entirely true. Even Ellin hadn't been allowed to come with her to Highever. Perhaps it was those months apart that made her presence seemed so smothering now.

"You know full well that it's not your job to stick your nose into Grey Warden business," Harmony snapped. She was tired of being civil.

"And we both know full well that you are not here on Warden business, Your Majesty."

"Why is it that when you call me  _Your Majesty,_  it comes out sounding like  _You Idiot_?" She didn't mean to raise her voice, but Ellin wasn't listening. "I cannot ask you to follow me into-"

"You don't need to ask," Ellin shouted back. "I follow of my own volition."

" _Why?_  Why can't you just do as I ask?" the Queen demanded.

"Because I'm doing as my King asked," came her answer.

Harmony let out an exhausted sigh. There was no arguing with  _that_. There was no more Alistair to laugh and tell the woman to back off. She and Ellin were stuck with each other.

"It's dangerous down here," she warned her bodyguard, voice lowered now. "There could be any number of darkspawn lurking in these tunnels, and even if they don't kill you, their blood can taint yours. Or they could take you. You don't even want to know what happens to the women they take."

"I understand."

Harmony wanted to laugh. The woman couldn't possibly understand. Not unless she saw the horror for herself.

"I'm the Warden Commander down here, not your charge, not the wife of your King. In the Deep Roads, I give the orders. If you don't heed them, you won't survive. Understood?"

In the corner of her eye she saw Oghren and Nathaniel exchange uneasy glances. It was that tone, the one that her old companions knew better than to argue with. She'd been hearing herself use it more and more the last couple of days.

"Understood," Ellin repeated. There was the slightest wobble in her voice, the slightest hint of fear. That was good. The Deep Roads were supposed to be feared. The bodyguard bowed, then took her place at her side.

"You chose this. Remember that," Harmony warned.

The gate sealed shut with a resounding clang and the lights from the Keep's cellar vanished, leaving just Nathaniel's torch to guide them. Without another word she spun around and stormed into the darkness. She didn't need to look back to know that the others had fallen in line behind her.

* * *

_The night before her first descent into Orzammar and the Deep Roads. The view from the Frostback Mountains was spectacular. The pass glowed white with freshly fallen snow and the stars above shone brighter than any she had seen before._

_Harmony and Alistair were both on watch, sitting back-to-back on a snow-dusted rock at the edge of camp, rubbing their hands together to keep warm, breath clouding before their eyes._

" _I wanted to tell you how much I enjoy your company," she confessed to him. Her cheeks flushed as she spoke the words and she felt glad that he couldn't see her turning crimson in the starlight._

" _You know, I was just thinking the same thing." The words made her heart flutter. "Given the circumstances, things could have been so much worse. I'm so grateful that you're you, instead of... some other Grey Warden."_

_Harmony looked up and smiled hopefully into the night sky._

" _Umm... that sounded better in my head," he continued shyly. "I just mean to say that I can't imagine having done this without you."_

" _I feel the same way." In truth, every moment spent alone with her fellow Warden made their situation seem a little less bleak._

" _Now we just need to be rid of that pesky archdemon, and everything will be back to normal, right?" he chuckled._

_Harmony gazed off into the distance and realized that she had no idea what normal was anymore. Her world had been torn to shreds by the blight and by men seeking to profit from its chaos. Perhaps after all of this, normal might mean getting to be by Alistair's side and not having to fight anymore. Peace. That wouldn't be so bad._

* * *

As she marched through the Deep Roads, Queen Harmony came to the conclusion that perhaps all this struggle was her life's own version of normalcy. Perhaps peace was just the strange moments in between.


	4. Rolling in the Deep

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Harmony and her party enter the Deep Roads and run into an old friend, as well as some old enemies.

The terrifying silence of the Deep Roads. Every journey there felt the same. Nobody speaks in a place where the slightest sound can be your only warning.

The faintest trickle of water, the lowest creaking off in the darkness, even a pebble skittering across the ground was enough to set everyone on edge. Nathaniel kept his bow strung and slung over one shoulder. Oghren's axe rested on his shoulder. She and Zevran kept reaching back to check on their daggers. Ellin was even more skittish than the rest of them, but that was understandable for her first time below.

These tunnels were less stable than the roads out of Orzammar. Sometimes the earth would shift and it became impossible not to imagine being buried in rubble. Barely a soul knew where they were, Harmony realised. A bitter thought mocked her; if she was crushed to death, at least it might give Alistair a new mystery to solve when he was done searching for Maric.

It was almost worse that nothing came from the shadows to bother them. Three days and they had seen no darkspawn, no spiders or stalkers. Even the nugs were scarce. The longer it went on, the more tense Harmony became. She didn't trust the Deep Roads. The moment you thought you were safe was usually when some nightmarish creature appeared.

When it was time to rest they kept watch in pairs; that was an old Warden rule. A person alone saw tricks in the shadows, got the jitters over nothing. Two together could talk and stay calm. At least that was the plan.

"You're poor company, you know that?" Nathaniel said with a faint smile.

Harmony realised she'd been staring off into space for several minutes, drifting out of their conversation like a wisp on the breeze. She suspected her friends pulled straws in secret to decide who should sit up with the moping Queen. Poor unlucky Nathaniel.

Up top there had been travel arrangements and bandits and Warden duties to keep her busy. Here in the darkness she could only walk and think. Anger and confusion warred with overwhelming concern for her husband, and sank her into a deep melancholy.

"I forget what I am when I'm topside. Down here it all comes back. This is the place I'll return when the dreams call me."

Nathaniel let out an uneasy breath. It was the same for all Wardens, and not a comfortable subject. "You're still young to fear your Calling."

He stoked the fire. Orange embers sparked and rose into the air. It had taken them a while to find a place with a noticeable draft. Drafts were good. Drafts meant the air vents the dwarves had built were still working. They kept the fire small all the same, not wanting to risk losing breathable air.

Harmony found herself staring into the flames. "They say those of us who have our joining during a blight get the Calling sooner. Alistair came just before. You, Oghren and the others came just after. In the middle there's me, and I was supposed to die with the archdemon."

"I'd still be a pariah if you'd died."

"Or the Seneschal might have hanged you."

Nathaniel almost seemed to laugh at the bleak observation. "You're broody in the Deep Roads." Coming from him, that was really saying something.

* * *

_Harmony was silent for hours after they left the Dead Trenches. Seeing the death that awaited her should she even survive the blight was the most harrowing experience of her life. That place would be her tomb someday. She would die alone in the darkness. No wonder the Wardens kept their order so secret. Who would ever volunteer for this life?_

_When they eventually stopped to rest, Alistair came to sit beside her. She knew it was obvious to everyone she was upset._

" _Here, look at this." He held his hand out to her. To her surprise his fingers were wrapped around a single red rose. It was the last thing she expected to see in the Deep Roads. The colour seemed so vibrant against the backdrop of stone and shadows. She didn't think anything could look so red._

_Alistair bit his lip; she could tell he was nervous. "I picked it in Lothering. I remember thinking, 'how could something so beautiful exist in a place with so much despair and ugliness?' I probably should have left it alone, but I couldn't. The darkspawn would come and their taint would just destroy it. So I've had it ever since."_

" _Why are you telling me this?" she asked._

_He looked at his fingers and fidgeted with the flower. "I thought that I might… give it to you, actually. In a lot of ways, I think the same thing when I look at you."_

" _Alistair…" She tried to say more but her breath caught in her throat._

" _I was just thinking, you've had none of the good experiences of being a Grey Warden since your Joining. It's all been death and fighting and tragedy. I thought maybe I could say something. Tell you what a rare and wonderful thing you are to find amidst all this… darkness."_

_Their eyes met. It felt like they should kiss, but she couldn't. Not in that place. Not while her skin was still crawling from the sight of the broodmother._

" _I feel the same way about you," she managed to say._

_He pressed the rose into her hand and smiled. "I'm glad you like it. Now if we could move on past this awkward embarrassing stage and get right to the steamy bits, I'd appreciate it," he jested._

" _I'll drink to that!" Oghren cheered at the top of his lungs._

_They remembered that they weren't exactly alone. She couldn't help but giggle at Alistair's mortified expression. Turning nearly as scarlet as the rose, he mumbled, "I'll be standing over here until the blushing stops. Just to be uhh… safe. You know how it is."_

* * *

A new day. Topside the sun would have risen, and Harmony would have stared up at it and felt that things weren't quite so dire. There was hope to be found in a new dawn. But not in the Deep Roads. Here you just had to carry on, just had to keep walking.

Nathaniel drew to a sudden halt. "Do you feel that?"

Everyone stopped. Harmony shut her eyes and reached out with that part of her mind that sensed when darkspawn were near. "I feel something, but it's faint."

The feeling grew stronger as they progressed, and soon the signs of darkspawn presence began to show. An evil stench was in the air. An oily filth lined the walls. It didn't take being a Warden to feel the corruption all around them. The place was wrong in all too familiar a way.

They drew their weapons and rounded the corner. This part of the tunnel was still lit by the ancient lava flows the dwarves had directed through it, making it easy to see the darkspawn corpses that lined the floor.

"These died recently, they're barely stiff," Nathaniel observed, giving a dead genlock a cautious tap on the arm.

Oghren crouched down beside one. "Aye, and this one's had a sodding axe through his face."

"Stay alert," Ellin warned, as if their journey had been a pleasant stroll until this point.

The tunnel opened out into a wide cavern, and up ahead were the sounds of clashing steel and angry grunting.

"Okay, even  _I_ feel it now," Oghren grunted. The other Wardens nodded. It was unmistakable. There were living darkspawn up ahead. They broke into a run.

There were a few old dwarven buildings, mostly rubble now, arranged in a circle around a clearing. A statue of one of the paragons with a hammer raised over his head stood in the centre. And at the statue's feet was a lone dwarf battling darkspawn for survival.

A lone dwarf named Sigrun.

She looked exhausted, ready to drop any moment. One arm hung limp at her side while the other slashed furiously at two genlocks that were rushing her. More darkspawn were charging in from the connecting tunnels. Their fellow Warden was in trouble.

Without a moment's pause, Harmony barked out her orders. "Nathaniel, stay back and pick off any that get near her. Oghren, Ellin, I want you to charge in. Stay sharp, don't let them surround you. Zevran, you head right, I'll head left. Let's try and flank as best we can. Use your flasks and fall back if you get overwhelmed. Understood?"

Oghren rolled his shoulders until the joints cracked. Then he roared, "Let's bust some faces!" and charged in. Ellin nodded to Harmony and followed after the dwarf.

They'd come just in time. As the genlocks turned to meet the two charging warriors, Sigrun stumbled backwards and slumped to the ground. Darkspawn reinforcements streamed in, and in a matter of seconds their party was outnumbered three to one.

Harmony kept to the shadows at the edge of the cavern to sneak around the fray. She launched herself into the thick of things just in time to head off three hurlock grunts that had decided to pick on the injured dwarf girl.

She kicked one of them in the back of the knee. It stumbled and made the mistake of turning to see what was behind it. Sigrun's axe caught it in the head and it toppled. Now the other two stepped towards Harmony and grinned ungodly smiles that stretched almost from one ear to the other.

"Behind you!" Sigrun shrieked.

Harmony turned just in time to see another hurlock emerge from behind some rocks. It wore a horned helmet and carried a battle axe. The second she laid eyes on it, she knew it was an alpha. As it closed in on her, she realised that she'd failed to follow her own advice about not getting surrounded.

Penned in, she lunged forward as if about to slash at the alpha, then spun on her heels and sunk her blade into the throat of the grunt behind her instead.

She knew the alpha would take a swing at her from behind, and was able to duck out of its path. She wasn't quick enough though to dodge the second grunt as it thrust a dagger into her leg. A pained gasp escaped her lips. Darkspawn weapons were twisted and cruel, she could feel already that the jagged blade lodged in her thigh would cause as much damage again when it was pulled out.

The grunt was about to follow through with a longsword strike, when one of Nathaniel's arrows caught it between the eyes. It fell to its knees.

Now there was only the alpha. She crossed her daggers above her head just in time to catch the axe as it swung down at her. They stood there for a moment, weapons locked. The darkspawn roared in her face and the stench of its breath made her eyes water. Her injured leg buckled beneath her, and there was little she could do as she was shoved onto her back.

One dagger flew from her grasp as she thudded into the dust. Her opponent crunched a boot down onto her hand and forced her fingers to uncurl from the hilt of her second blade. A kick sent it skittering from her reach.

The alpha took a step back and lifted the axe above its head, ready to push all of its strength into a final blow. Harmony was about to die.

Frantically she kicked out with both feet and struck the alpha in the shins. The agony of moving her stabbed leg made her ears ring, but the timing was perfect. Now the darkspawn was falling towards her.

She screamed as she ripped the blade from her leg and thrust it up just in time to catch the creature in the chest. A fatal blow. The axe's edge struck the dirt beside her head, far too close for comfort. The alpha let out a strangled gurgle and died on top of her.

There was a moment where all Harmony could do was lie still and let the air back into her emptied lungs. As soon as she was able to, she crawled out from beneath the dead darkspawn. She scarcely had any fight left in her, but she limped over to Sigrun. She stood over her friend, ready to protect her with her life if she had to.

Harmony didn't have to worry. All that was left to do was watch as Ellin cleaved a genlock in half with her greatsword. In a matter of seconds her friends had dispatched the last of them. She breathed a sigh of relief and sank down beside Sigrun.

"Are you all right?" the dwarf asked her.

Harmony laughed in spite of the pain. "I'm supposed to ask you that."

"A few scrapes and bruises," she answered with a shrug.

Harmony clamped a hand to her wound and pressed down to try and stop the bleeding. Then she leaned in and took a closer look at the arm that hung limp at the dwarf's side. "Arms don't bend that way, Sigrun. Yours is broken."

Sigrun just rolled her eyes. "I'm supposed to be dead. You can't count on darkspawn for anything!"

There was a great trail of blood from the dead hurlock alpha to where Harmony sat. At first she didn't realise it was all hers. Her head was swimming, she felt sleepy and nauseous and lightheaded all at once. She didn't even notice her eyes were closing.

"Hey sleepyhead, stay with me," Sigrun urged. But it was no use. Harmony was already slipping away into a dream.

* * *

_No darkspawn about, no bandits, no assassins. The sun seemed to shine brighter than ever now that they were out of the Deep Roads, and Harmony found herself in a shy little dance with her fellow Grey Warden as they walked._

_She could barely keep her eyes off him. Try as she might to stay focused, her gaze kept drifting back to the line of Alistair's jaw and the honey colour of his hair. Sometimes she would look to find him staring back at her. Sometimes their eyes would linger too long, and Harmony would have to blush and turn away._

_The Wardens probably had rules about romance. Alistair would know, but it seemed like asking would be… too forward. Maybe any moment now he'd say they had to stop. He'd crush her by saying it wasn't proper. She cautioned herself about becoming too smitten, but inwardly she knew it was too late. She was falling for him._

_They crested a hill and the village of Redcliffe came into view. It was a beautiful sight, waterfalls tumbling down into Lake Calenhad, a maze of wharves stretching out from the houses, and the castle looming above it all._

_Alistair pulled her aside from the others. "Look, can we talk for a moment?" he asked seriously. "I need to tell you something I probably should have told you earlier."_

_Harmony felt her panicked heart skip a beat._

* * *

Her eyes opened slowly. For a terrifying moment she forgot where she was, but the pain in her thigh brought it all back. Now she was lying on her bedroll beside a campfire. Her hand wandered down beneath her blanket to touch the bandage that wrapped her leg.

Hushed voices were speaking together. It only took a moment for her to hear her name and realise that she was the topic of discussion.

"She's barely said a word the last few days. I think it's just hitting her that he's gone." Nathaniel's voice.

Not everyone was awake. In the corner of her eye she could see Ellin flat on her back with her arms crossed over her chest. Somewhere in the background was a gurgling snore that could belong to no one but Oghren. But the other three, they were deep in discussion. She lay still and kept her breath steady so they wouldn't notice her.

"And he just left her a note? That's cold," she heard Sigrun say.

Cautiously, Harmony stole a peek at the friend they had rescued. Someone had fashioned a dagger into a splint for the dwarf's broken arm. There was some colour back in her cheeks and her cuts had been cleaned up.

"Did he say anything to you, Zevran? Did they have a fight?" she heard Nathaniel ask.

"All he says is that he searches for his father." She could almost hear the elf shrugging.

"By all accounts, Maric is dead," Nathaniel pointed out.

"An excuse to run off then. Could there be another woman?" Sigrun asked. "What about this Rivaini captain?"

"Isabela? Not the sort to refuse a tumble, but neither would she sink her claws into someone else's man," Zevran assured them. "Not unless encouraged, but Alistair is hardly the type."

Sigrun snorted at that. "He's a man. With man parts."

"Have you such a low opinion of all us men folk, my sweet dwarven friend?" Zevran gasped in mock outrage.

"Where I'm from, a low opinion of men is necessary," she answered. The words were bitter, but spoken so sweetly they didn't sound it.

"I asked him what his Queen would think of him running off with pirates," Zevran continued. "Do you know what he said? He said he didn't think she would miss him."

"Right. She just came down here for the medicinal benefits," Sigrun laughed sardonically.

Nathaniel sighed. "Whatever's going on, I don't like the idea of him lying to Harmony."

"I'm not sure he lies," said Zevran. "Perhaps there are other reasons for leaving than just wanting to find his father, but I think his quest is true. Alistair is not a secretive man."

A tear rolled silently down the queen's cheek. Zevran had forgotten. Alistair did have a secretive side.

* * *

_Harmony found a quiet jetty and sat down with a whetstone to give her blades some much needed care. Her legs dangled down over the water and she stared out across Lake Calenhad, trying to wrap her head around the secret that had been kept from her._

_In the corner of her eye she saw Alistair's cautious approach. He tiptoed as if worried a dagger might suddenly fly his way. "Just a hunch, but I'd swear you're upset with me."_

_It took her a while to respond, and for a moment there was no sound but the lapping of the water and the screech of stone sharpening metal._

" _Why did you keep your birthright a secret?" she asked once the silence seemed to have dragged on too long. It was impossible to keep the hurt from her voice._

" _You never asked?"_

_That was it? After all they'd been through together, all they'd suffered and lost. Ostagar. The Circle Tower. The Deep Roads. All that time he hadn't said a word about his heritage, and now it was a joke?_

_She sheathed her daggers and got to her feet. "Cheap answer."_

* * *

Another day, another tunnel. Harmony's mood was soured by the knowledge that her injury was slowing everyone down. Ellin had offered to carry her but the indignity of it was more than she could bear. Instead she limped along in agony, spurred only by Nathaniel's promise that they were almost there.

"You know, it took me weeks to find that pocket of darkspawn," Sigrun was saying. "I mean, I'm grateful. But at some point you'll have to get out of the habit of delaying my glorious demise." She had always been strangely perky for a dead girl.

Harmony smiled. "Never."

The tunnel started to smell less like darkspawn and more like seaweed. They hurried along, expecting to find their way out any moment. Instead they found a pool of water blocking their path, and beyond that, boulders and rubble piled high to the ceiling.

Nathaniel frowned, pulled out his map and studied it for several minutes. "I don't understand. We should be there by now." He sighed impatiently. A dead end? Harmony felt her heart sink.

Zevran crouched down at the water's edge, dipped her finger into the water and tasted it. "It's salty," he observed.

"You'd know," Oghren grunted. Sigrun shoved him with her good elbow.

"The sea must have collapsed the exit. We're lucky the whole place isn't flooded," said Ellin.

Harmony clenched her fists in determination. She'd come too far to be defeated by a bit of water. "I'll swim down and take a look. Maybe there's a way through," she declared.

"Allow me." Zevran was already half stripped by the time Harmony turned her head. The elf was in his element, knowing that all eyes were on his toned midriff. He turned to Ser Ellin and winked, a mischievous smile across his face. The woman blushed and looked away.

"You do know dwarves don't float, Commander?" Oghren muttered as Zevran waded out into the water and plunged beneath its surface.

"Especially ones with broken arms," Sigrun added.

"Let's see if there's a way out before we worry about that."

There was a pause that was far too long for Harmony's liking as they waited for Zevran to return. Just as she was wondering if she should dive in to check that he wasn't caught on a rock or being devoured by some sea monster, the Antivan finally surfaced.

He grinned sheepishly at Ellin. "Don't judge me too harshly, my sweet lady. The sea does cruel things to a man's nethers."

"What did you find?" Harmony asked, saving poor flustered Ellin from having to respond to the comment.

"You swim down and it gets a bit narrow, but after that there's no tunnel, just open sea and light. I think we could make the surface."

"Which could be the middle of the Waking Sea for all we know," Nathaniel warned.

"You said this should be Ostwick," Harmony reminded him.

"You would trust your life to my map-making skills?"

The queen shrugged. "Amaranthine is back that way. Anyone can turn around if they want, but I don't want to waste any more time. I need to take a chance, for Alistair."

In that moment, she recalled Zevran's words from the night before.  _He didn't think she would miss him_. She realised that it didn't matter to her why he had left or what he had kept from her. Alistair was her husband, and if he didn't know how much he meant to her, then it was time to show him once and for all. She wouldn't let anything hold her back.

There was a resounding clang that made Harmony jump. Oghren's breastplate had hit the ground and already he was struggling with his grieves. She smiled. In no time at all, her friends were all stripping out of their armour.

"Some Deep Roads treasure hunter is going to hit the jackpot someday," Ellin mused. She drove her greatsword into the dirt so that it stood upright on its own, and arranged her armour neatly at its base. Oghren did the same with his battleaxe and heavy plate. Soon, all of the things that were too heavy to bring were piled together.

Harmony wore a linen tunic and leggings. She kept her coin purse and the daggers strapped to her back, but everything else was left behind.

Together they waded into the water. Nathaniel and Zevran held onto Oghren, and Ellin and Harmony held on to Sigrun. One last deep breath, and they left the Deep Roads behind. They crawled on their stomachs beneath the rocks. Sigrun and Oghren needed a bit of shoving to get through, but in a moment they were out.

A forest of seaweed stretched out before them. There were shoals of fish and shining rock pools and ruined ships.

She wrapped her arms around Sigrun's waist and kicked up off the seabed. Ellin pulled the dwarf along by her good arm and together they helped her towards the surface. Urgent kicks propelled them upward toward the light, their lungs ready to burst.

Finally they breached. A desperate gasp of air. A blinding brilliant light. A moment's pause and then it all came into focus. Ships. Buildings. A harbour.

Ostwick.


	5. Queen of Hearts

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Harmony and her party set sail for Antiva.

"Three humans, two dwarves and an elf walk into a bar. Doesn't that sound like a fantastic start to a joke?" Sigrun asked, hovering her hands over the fire.

"Especially when it's the middle of winter and they're half naked and soaked to the bone." Harmony would have laughed but her teeth were still chattering.

There had been more than a few stares as her party stumbled into the dockside inn, bedraggled and dripping puddles on the floor. Harmony had given the bartender a sovereign and asked him to keep the fireplace hot and the drinks coming.

Nathaniel had borrowed a shirt from the inn's lost and found box and gone out into the city to see about getting a ship. Now there was nothing to do but get warm and wait for news.

A serving girl arriving with bowls of hot stew brought Harmony and Sigrun back to their table.

"Those two were always idiots when it came to each other," Oghren was saying to Ellin and Zevran. "The man gave her a sodding flower and then for weeks she was all, ' _I wonder if he likes me…'_ "

Harmony rolled her eyes. "Because you and Felsi had such a smooth courtship." She stole a sip of Ellin's drink and then sat down beside the dwarf.

"I wanted her to grease my bronto and I sodding well came out and said it, didn't I? No confusion there."

Ellin clasped a hand to her mouth. "I think I just threw up a little bit."

"That happens a lot around him," Zevran chuckled. "It's a sign you need to drink more."

Without another word, they were digging into the food. After days of stale rations and the odd bit of nug stew, nobody was willing to stand on ceremony over a good feed. They weren't even half way through it by the time Nathaniel returned.

"We've found a silk merchant willing to take on passengers, but he leaves in two hours and says he only has room for four," Nathaniel reported. He sat down next to Sigrun and stole a chunk of bread from her bowl. Harmony signalled the serving girl for another bowl.

"So two of us have to stay behind in Ostwick?" Ellin surmised.

Oghren was quick to yell, "Not it!" loud enough to make the other customers stare.

Nathaniel laughed. "I think Sigrun needs to let that arm heal and Oghren has a family that needs him. I've already found a ship to take them both back to Amaranthine. That is… if you agree, Warden Commander?" he asked Harmony.

Things moved quickly after that. There was just enough time to buy some supplies before their ship was to sail. Harmony was getting low on funds by the time they had everything they needed: new clothes, a new bowstring for Nathaniel, a sword for Ellin as well as a good supply of potions, poisons and flasks. It all added up.

Oghren followed them around the market stalls and argued incessantly about being left behind, but Harmony could only agree with Nathaniel's decision. Little Mona would only have her father around for so many years before the Calling took him. She didn't want to risk cutting that time short over something that wasn't even a Warden problem.

He was still grumbling about it as he and Sigrun came to the jetty to see them off. Harmony just smiled warmly, leaned in and planted a kiss on his cheek. He fell silent and touched a hand to the spot where her lips had touched him. She thought for a moment she had made him understand, but instead he burped and said, "Sorry Warden, you're too tall and I'm spoken for."

Sigrun cringed. "Do you have to leave me with him?"

"You had your chance as well, woman," he grunted at her.

Nathaniel patted Sigrun on the shoulder. "You'll be back in Amaranthine before you know it. And you'd better still be there when I get back, my friend. We happen to need you."

"Oh, all right," she promised. "But for you and Harmony. Not for Ser Burps-a-lot."

"Ready to cast off. All aboard!" a voice called from the ship in a thick Orlesian accent. At that, Harmony, Nathaniel, Zevran and Ellin sprang up the gangplank and waved goodbye to their friends.

"You handle Grey Warden business very well, Nathaniel," Harmony told him as Ostwick's docks shrank into the distance.

Nathaniel kept staring back towards the comrades they'd left behind. "I'm sorry if I've been stepping on your toes."

"Stepping on my toes?" Harmony laughed. "Saving my arse, more like. I think when we get back to Ferelden, it's time for you to take over as Warden Commander. You've earned it. And your recruits deserve a full-time commander."

"That's an honour, but…" Nathaniel looked unsure, like he was about to argue with the promotion, but before he could say anything, Ellin shoved past them so that she could reach the railing in time to throw up over the side.

"Are you all right?" Harmony asked, once the dreadful noise of it came to an end.

Ellin didn't answer, instead she grabbed Nathaniel by the tunic and pulled him in close. "Please," she rasped, "I don't sail well. You have to take my place and guard the queen." She let go of him and returned to retching over the side.

"Today's just full of promotions isn't it?" Nathaniel smiled weakly.

Harmony found Zevran sitting on the railing at the prow of the ship, looking out at the waters ahead of them. She was no sailor but it seemed like they had the wind in their favour and were setting a good pace.

"Will we be able to catch up to Isabela's ship on this?" she asked him.

He broke into a typical Zevran chuckle. "My dear, nothing short of a Qunari dreadnaught could catch that ship. This is a trading vessel, fat with silks."

Her face fell and she sank down beside him. It had seemed like everything would fall into place once they were on their way to Antiva. Now she realised they had no clue where to look once they reached that foreign land. Alistair could be anywhere by then. How far across the world would she need to chase him?

"Come now, don't lose hope," Zevran gave her a playful shove. "Alistair will reach Antiva City before you, it's true. But we'll find him. The man barely knows up from down without you. Doubtless he already needs rescuing from some Crow prison or deadly temptress. We'll get you there in time to save your handsome Prince. What kind of adventure would it be if we did not?"

* * *

Whatever kind of adventure it was, it took a turn for the dull once they were out on the open sea. The four of them shared a cramped cabin, their bunks so short that they each had to tuck their legs in to fit properly.

Their Orlesian hosts thought it civilised to wear heavy colognes to cover the usual stink of sweat and feet that all ships carry. The result was a pungent mess of smells that only aggravated Ellin's seasickness. Most days she just hid in their cabin.

Nathaniel, Harmony and Zevran spent a lot of time playing Wicked Grace with a dog-eared pack of cards Zevran had 'borrowed' from their hosts. It would have been more fun, but they had little to gamble with. Harmony lost most of the hands anyway; Zevran was too good at reading her and Nathaniel's face gave nothing away.

In the evenings when things were quiet out on deck she would spend her time training under the stars. Her body had been letting her down lately. A scrap with bandits had exhausted her. A measly band of darkspawn had almost managed to take her life. Now the stab wound in her leg forced her to limp when she walked. Whatever awaited them in Antiva, she needed her strength to face it.

"You're certainly getting faster, I feel queasy now when you spin around," Ellin muttered. It was two weeks since they'd left Ostwick and Harmony had ordered her bodyguard to come outside and get some air while she practised.

"Don't watch me. Keep your eyes on the horizon. You'll feel better," Harmony promised. She sheathed her daggers and began on her stretches.

Ellin swivelled on the barrel she was perched on and looked out to sea. "Couple of ships there. Are we near a port?"

"We're not far from Bastion." Harmony looked up and followed Ellin's gaze. In the haze of twilight it was hard to tell the sea from the sky, but where the two seemed to merge there were indeed a pair of boats. "You've sharp eyes. I didn't see anything until you pointed them out."

Ellin squinted at the distant ships. "Does a skull flag mean what I think it means?"

The Second Mate was passing by at that moment. He stopped to see what they were looking at and said, "You've the eyes of a kestrel, to find two Raider vessels in this light."

"Should we be worried? Can we outrun them?" Harmony asked urgently.

The Mate laughed in a very smug, orlesian sort of way. "We've paid them, they let us be. It's nothing to worry over." At that reassurance, Harmony ignored the ships and continued her training.

But in the night they were woken by a ringing bell. Through the ceiling of their cabin came the sounds of urgent orders being bellowed and frantic sailors rushing to obey them. She, Nathaniel and Zevran climbed out of their bunks to investigate, leaving Ellin to sleep.

Out in the cold night air the problem became clear. The two Raider ships were in their midst, and far too close for comfort. One had split apart from the other, and come about to flank the little Orlesian trader.

"Oh  _Maldición,_ not him…" she heard Zevran whisper in terror once they could see who was coming. His eyes were wide like a startled deer.

The captain marched up to them and smacked Nathaniel across the back of the head. "What have you brought on my ship, boy?" he demanded crossly. "Raiders don't bother us. If they're here it's for something you've got."

Nathaniel started trying to explain that they weren't smuggling anything, when Zevran piped up. "You see the skull flag, yes? There's a black feather mask over the eyes. Those aren't simple Raiders."

At first the captain seemed outraged to be spoken to by an elf, but then took a moment to study the flag and seemed to conclude that Zevran was right. "We've no weapons and we don't like you turnips much," he barked. "If it's you the Crows want, you'll get no protection from us." Then he stomped back to the helm, muttering curses under his breath.

"Zev? What's wrong? Who's coming?" Harmony asked.

Zevran's glare stayed fixed on the ship to their port side. "Sol Castana. Master assassin. Secret weapon of the Crows." His voice was barely more than a frightened whisper.

"Are we in trouble?" she asked him.

He grabbed her by the shoulders. "Listen to me. If you get yourself killed over this, I will never forgive you," he shook her furiously as he said it. There was a fierceness there that Harmony had never seen in him before. "Only try to fight him if he threatens you. And fight like an Antivan. There's no room for Fereldan honour here."

She nodded to him and ran below to fetch her blades. She considered waking Ellin to warn of the arriving Crows, but decided against it. The woman had barely held down a meal since leaving Ostwick. She was weakened and unlikely to be much use in a fight. Better to leave her safe out of the way.

Back up top, the Raider ships had arrived. Gangplanks were being prepared on both sides to allow them to board. The crew of the Orlesian trader were all assembled on deck, all holding their hands above their heads in surrender.

Nathaniel moved beside Harmony, jaw clenched tightly, bow slung over one shoulder.

"Where did Zevran go?" she asked, realising their friend was no longer on the deck.

"He ran off somewhere. I only turned my head for a moment," Nathaniel answered.

"Well where could he-"

Harmony was cut off as armed men began to file onto the deck from either side. They lined up along both the port and starboard railings without a word. They were fearsomely huge, about as qunari-shaped as humans could be. Most of them were grinning. Most had menace in their eyes.

An older man with silvery hair swept back into a ponytail stepped onto the deck and stood in front of the crowd of Orlesians. "Who is the captain?" he asked, his Antivan accent almost too thick to be understood.

The Orlesian captain looked like he wished he could be anyone else as he stepped forward timidly.

The older man stood aside and someone else appeared on the deck of the trading ship. He was everything that came to Harmony's mind when she thought of Antiva: golden skin, dark hair and an aura of danger. Instantly she knew she must be looking Sol Castana.

"Do not worry,  _Capitán_. It's only your passengers that interest me," Sol purred, giving the man an overly familiar pat on the cheek.

The captain spun around and pointed a trembling finger at Nathaniel and Harmony. "These two doglords came aboard in Ostwick. There's another wench sick down below. They have an elf too, an Antivan one. He's hiding someplace."

Sol looked up and noticed Harmony. He eyed her slowly from head to toe, making no effort to be subtle as his gaze lingered on her breasts and at her hips.

"This elf. Let me guess…" he stepped forward slowly, eyes locked on Harmony now. "Blonde. Charming. Tattoo across the face. Handsome, if you like that sort of thing…"

He reached out to touch the Queen of Ferelden on the cheek, and it was in that moment that a knife flew his way. He snatched it out of the air just a split-second before it would have struck him in the skull. A dangerous smile spread across his face.

Harmony looked up to see the outline of Zevran perched on the yardarm, barely visible in the darkness, elven eyes wide like saucers, reflecting what little light there was.

"Hello Zevran," Sol called up to him. He let the knife drop to the deck. "A little bird told me you took ship in Ostwick. Come down, let's talk like civilised men." Sol was answered with two more throwing knives. He dodged them so gracefully it was as if he danced out of their path.

"No?" he called up. "Would it change your mind if one of your Fereldan friends took a little swim?"

One of the qunari-sized Antivans grabbed Nathaniel by the arms and shuffled him over to the railing. He struggled against it, but wasn't strong enough to free himself.

At that, Zevran leapt down onto the deck, crouching into his landing. He drew his daggers and set them down in front of him before rising, hands spread apart to show he was unarmed. "Spare me the childish threats, Sol. I'll talk," he said. Two of Sol's men seized him then, twisting his arms behind his back to hold him still.

"Forgive the hostility, Zevran, but after what you did to Guildmaster Marcelo…"

"Should I spare this one, master?" asked the man holding Nathaniel.

"He is of no notice," Sol made a dismissive gesture with his hand and his man went to shove Nathaniel over the railing.

"No!" Harmony shrieked. She pulled out a knife of her own and threw it at the man trying to murder her friend. It grazed his face. He touched a hand to his bleeding cheek and laughed. Nathaniel took his chance to scurry out of reach.

"You missed," Sol's man chuckled.

Harmony shook her head. Then the man's smile fell. In an instant he turned deathly pale and crumpled to his knees.

" _Tóxico..._ " he gasped.

_Fight like an Antivan_ , Zevran had said. Tipping her blades with poison had seemed like a good start. She turned to Sol, "There's an antidote. He can have it if you promise not to hurt anyone."

Sol grinned like a cat letting a mouse run over its paws. He stepped toward Harmony and leaned in too close for comfort. "And who might you be, pretty one?"

Harmony's eyes darted over to the poisoned Antivan who now writhed in agony on the deck. Did Sol not care that his own man was dying?

"I'm nobody," she answered.

Sol took her hands in his and lifted them to his face like he was going to kiss them. Then his eyes fell to the rings she was wearing and he paused. "Eusebio?" he called, beckoning the older man forward.

Eusebio scurried in close and took Harmony's hands in his. He looked first to the family signet ring on her right hand. " _Corona di_   _Alloro_ ,  _familia_  Cousland," he muttered to Sol. Then he looked to the two mabari etched into her wedding band. " _Cani di guerra_ ,  _familia reale_  Ferelden."

Over their shoulders, the poisoned man let out an agonized cry and fell still. Neither of them seemed to notice.

Sol's grin widened, revealing several gold-capped teeth. "You're much more than you let on, my sweet lady. Let us go somewhere more private, you, Zevran and I. Then you can tell me how it is you use our own poisons against us."

* * *

_"I was wondering if you might… teach me to be an assassin."_

_The thought seemed to take Zevran by surprise. It probably wasn't what he'd expected when she'd asked him to take a stroll with her in private, but they were returning from the Circle Tower with mages to help the Arl's possessed son. Their camp was far too crowded for serious conversations like this one._

" _Oh, certainly I could. But I won't. I swore to the Crows that the things they taught me were to remain a secret. And while, yes, they are already angry at me… I'd rather not push things. You see?"_

" _And what if I ordered you to do it?" It didn't seem the most diplomatic thing to say, but the man did owe Harmony his life, after all._

" _You would order me to betray my solemn oaths?" he gasped in mock outrage. "Come now, you don't need this training. You seem to be able to slay things just by staring at them hard enough."_

_Harmony realised she had failed to win him over and her face sank. It wasn't until she saw Zevran's face soften that she realised how much her eyes betrayed her sorrow. She turned away; she wanted his help, not his pity._

" _I presume you have a target in mind?" she heard him say. "A monster indeed to have marred such a pretty face with such a sour expression."_

" _Rendon Howe. He's the Arl of Amaranthine. And Denerim. Maker, he's probably calling himself the Teyrn of Highever by now."_

_Zevran smiled as if a piece of a puzzle had just slotted into place. "An advisor to Teyrn Loghain," he said. "I've met the fellow. What's he to you?"_

" _The man who butchered my family," she seethed. The pain felt raw again, like an old wound picked open._

" _When you put it like that… I suppose I could share some tricks of the trade."_

" _I'd be grateful, Zevran," she told him, managing a smile._

_The elf raised an eyebrow at that. "And just how grateful, exactly?" He stepped towards her, a mischievous grin already spreading across his face._

_Something swept over Harmony in that moment. She grabbed him by the collar of his tunic and pulled him in close until their lips were touching. His eyes widened in surprise, but then he relaxed into the kiss. His calloused hands cupped her face at first. Then they swept through her hair. Then they were at her back, moving downwards._

_His lips were strong, but gentle, and their caress made her knees weak._

_He smelled like leather and summer rain._

* * *

Harmony was taken to one of the Antivan ships, ushered into a cabin and locked inside. It was almost an hour before that old man, Eusebio, appeared with a dress draped over one arm.

"You change. I turn around," he instructed, handing her the gown. Since she wasn't entirely sure if she was a prisoner or a guest, it seemed best to do as she was told.

White fabric billowed out from a jewelled collar that fastened tightly around her throat. The dress left her back exposed, it felt more like being wrapped in a bedsheet than being properly dressed.

Eusebio pulled her hair from its ponytail and let it cascade loose over one shoulder instead. She was given satin slippers to wear in place of her leather boots. She was sure they would be spoiled the moment she set foot on the damp of the ship's deck, but didn't bother explaining it to the Antivan.

When Eusebio led her into Sol's cabin, the man set down his goblet of wine and stood to greet her with a flourishing bow. Zevran was by the window. He glanced over his shoulder briefly, a rueful look in his eyes. Then he went back to staring out to sea.

" _Si_. Now you look like a Queen," Sol told her. "When first we met I mistook you for some common wench here for Zevran's amusement."

"Charming." Harmony held her head high, though in that gown she felt more like a concubine than a monarch.

"This is how one of your station should dress. Beauty enough to win a nation's heart. A goddess atop a pedestal, out of the reach of filthy, common hands." He reached out to touch a hand to her face but she grabbed him firmly by the wrist.

"Not as out of reach as I'd like," she snapped.

Zevran said something to him in Antivan then. She didn't understand the words, but they were clipped and curt. It sounded like a warning or a threat. Whatever it was, it made Sol take step back from her, which made her more comfortable.

"So Fereldan…" the man sighed. "To business, then. Zevran and the Crows have at long last come to an understanding. Since our interests are aligned with yours, I thought you might like to hear of the arrangement."

Arrangement? Harmony didn't like the sound of that. "Zevran?"

Her elven friend turned around, but his gaze didn't meet hers. "The man who sent me to Ferelden was Prince Claudio Valisti. He is the Third Talon of the Crows, a very important man. He asked me to show Alistair proof that Maric had at one time been held prisoner in Antiva."

"Your husband caused quite the stir when he and his friends stormed our prison looking for his father," Sol added.

"Did they find Maric?" she asked.

Zevran shook his head. "If you believe the records, a witch freed Maric years ago."

Sol rolled his eyes at that. "Your King has stormed off into the Tellari swamps to chase that tall tale. A fool's errand. Not a place many return from. And now Prince Claudio has followed in after, not to be seen again."

"So what? You're too cowardly to go and look for them yourself?" Harmony couldn't help but smirk at the brief flash of anger on Sol's face as she said that.

"There's a fine line between bravery and recklessness, sweet lady," he said, veneer of calm returning in an instant.

"I have volunteered to search for Claudio and Alistair," said Zevran.

Something churned in Harmony's gut. Zevran working for the Crows didn't sit right with her. Not at all.

"We tire of Zevran's war on us," said Sol. "If he can travel to the swamps and find Claudio without getting himself killed, we will forgive his transgressions and welcome him back into the fold as a Talon of the Crows."

"That's quite an offer." Now it was Harmony's turn to hide her anger. Had all of this started just because Zevran wanted to win his way back into the Antivan Crows?

"If he comes out of there alive, he's proven he has the skill," Sol shrugged, as if it were normal for the Crows to let their assassins rejoin after eight years of rebellion.

Sol started to walk towards the door then. "Queen of hearts, my cabin is yours. We will fetch your friends aboard and get you safely to Antiva in a matter of days. You're welcome to go with Zevran to the Tellari swamps, or wait in Antiva City as an esteemed guest of the Crows. The choice is entirely yours. "

"I'll be going with Zevran," she said instantly, not taking her eyes off the friend she thought she knew better than this.

"As you wish. A pleasant evening to the both of you." Sol bowed again and let himself out of the room.

Once they were alone, Harmony slapped Zevran across the face with all the strength she could muster. The force of it jerked his head to one side. "After everything you've done to free yourself from these people?" she spat.

He didn't turn back to her, only touched his fingers to the handprint she had left on his cheek.

"This is a trap, Harmony," he told her softly. "Where Claudio and Alistair go, they dare not follow. If I die in that swamp then I'm out of their hair for good. If I succeed then every Crow cell Sol has control of will be waiting when I come out."

"Sol is using your loyalty to me to make you do his dirty work?" Harmony's palm was stinging now, but the guilt she felt for lashing out at him hurt more.

"A brilliant plan, no? He's tried for years to dispose of me." There was a bitter note of resentment in his tone, and she wasn't sure if it was aimed at her or at himself.

"Zevran, I'm sorry. I thought for a minute you really wanted to be a…"

"A Talon of the Crows?" he snorted. "I think I'd rather continue to be a thorn in the foot of this fat, greedy bird." Finally he looked up at her, a smile on his face that made it seem like he'd entirely forgotten the danger they were in.

"You look like an Antivan Princess," he smirked, noticing the outfit Eusebio had made her wear.

She rolled her eyes. "I feel like an idiot. Maybe I shouldn't have left Ferelden."

The smile vanished again, and just as quickly he was serious Zevran once more. The Zevran that made Harmony nervous, because if even he wasn't smiling and joking then there must really be a problem. "Will you ever say what it is that haunts you?" he asked.

"You mean aside from my husband running off?"

"You and I both know it's something more than that." It came of being an assassin, a good one at that. Zevran had always been attuned to people, always seen a great deal more than he let on. "Is it secret for the sake of Ferelden? Or just for the sake of your own heart?"

She swallowed. "There's no secret. I'm fine."

He snorted at the lie. "You're almost convincing when you're awake."

"When I'm awake?"

"You cry in your sleep, Harmony. I hear you every night. If you only told me why, perhaps I could-"

"There's nothing to tell. We just need to find Alistair and get everyone back home." Never mind that Alistair could already have died in a swamp and the Crows were lining up to murder Zevran if they even made it out alive.

"As you say," he sighed. She knew he was hurt, but it couldn't be helped.

* * *

_Did all Antivans kiss that way or was it just a special talent of Zevran's? Either way, Harmony was swept away by it. She didn't even know how they ended up rolling over each other in the grass like that, but he was the one on top by the time they finally had to come up for air._

" _Harmony…" Zevran said, his breath heavy._

" _Don't stop," she whispered, stroking a finger along the ridge of his ear. She could feel his whole body tremble with delight at that simple gesture. For a moment he looked as if he were about to surrender to it and sink into another endless kiss, but something held him back._

_He let out a heavy sigh, resting his forehead against hers. "Alistair cares for you. Do not settle for me because you believe he does not," he told her softly._

" _Alistair has nothing to do with this," she argued, though she couldn't quite meet the assassin's gaze as she said it._

_Zevran rolled off her. "Ah, my dear Grey Warden… Alistair is the entire reason for this. His lie of omission left you thinking you didn't matter to him, so you are out to prove that he does not matter to you either."_

_Harmony sat up and hugged her knees. The braids in her hair had come loose and one of the leather straps at her shoulder had come undone._

_A furious blush spread across her cheeks. She was suddenly so ashamed. Nice Cousland girls didn't go around kissing Antivans they barely knew. Nice Cousland girls didn't toy with people's hearts just because someone had hurt their feelings._

" _I'm sorry, Zevran," she whispered, tears welling in her eyes._

_He stroked a hand down her cheek. "Don't be, my sweet lady. This was a pleasant enough diversion. It will stay just between us. You've hurt no one."_

" _You're a good person," she told him, wishing she could think the same of herself._

_A sardonic smile. "In truth, I am a scoundrel. You are pure like a blanket of freshly fallen snow, I would like nothing better than to make the first footprint. But following you, it makes me want to try to be a good person." He jumped up, dusted himself off and held a hand out to her._

" _You're closer than you think," she told him as he helped her to her feet._

_Zevran flashed a wicked grin and it was suddenly as if it never happened. "Well, when you are married and have lots of children, you can name one of them after their uncle Zevran."_

_Together they laughed._

* * *

Harmony having children. Now there was a ridiculous notion…


	6. Silent No Longer

Harmony had hoped for a chance to see Zevran's hometown as they passed, but their business was far upriver and there was no time to stop. The crowded outline of Antiva City had come and gone days ago.

Now she stood with Sol on the foredeck of the ship, staring ahead to where the river's black water blended into the darkness. The swamp ahead of them was alive with foreign sounds: hissing serpents, buzzing insects, strange birds and stranger reptiles.

"This is as far as the ship can go, and much further than my men wanted to sail. The ghost stories we Antivans grew up with all begin here." The lascivious smile was gone from Sol's face. The Tellari swamps seemed to put him in a sombre mood. "Last chance to turn back, Queen of Ferelden."

" _Hero_ of Ferelden," she corrected. "I'm not some vulnerable little princess who needs protecting."

He gave her a quizzical glance. "No? Those closest with you seem to disagree. Your King thought better of bringing you here. Your friends never let you out of their sight. I think all would prefer if you were safe with me."

Harmony snorted. "I doubt that anyone is truly safe with you, Sol Castana."

"Sad but true," he admitted with a sly chuckle. "We'll be watching, Queen of hearts. We'll be waiting. Luck be with you. I hope we meet again."

Harmony turned from him and said nothing. The feeling wasn't mutual.

* * *

Ellin and Nathaniel rowed the longboat while Zevran crouched in the front, holding their torch high above his head. They rowed as close to the river's edge as they could manage before the boat became stuck, then waded through the sludge until they were standing on the riverbank.

The wilds stretched out ahead of them, an untamed forest whose floor was knee deep with stagnant water. The trunks glowed green with algae. The air was so thick with insects they were like a mist.

Before they went any further, Harmony drew to a halt and said, "It's dangerous in there. We might not come out again. If we do make it back, there's still Sol's Crows to deal with. The safest thing for any of you right now would be to make a run for it and find your way back to Ferelden. I promise I'd understand if you did."

Ellin, Nathaniel and Zevran exchanged glances for a moment, and seemed to reach an unspoken consensus.

"You really ought to stop wasting your breath, Your Majesty," Ellin said. She marched ahead without another moment's thought. Nathaniel and Zevran followed on behind her.

Harmony watched them stride into danger on her behalf and smiled. Things would be all right. With friends like these on her side, how could they not be?

They clambered through the mire, clinging to overhead vines and overgrown roots. Wandering aimlessly through the dim light, silently praying away the predators of the swamps. Searching for anything unusual, anything that could give them a clue of Alistair's whereabouts.

"Look there!" Nathaniel pointed up to a corpse hanging from a nearby tree. It was abuzz with flies, nailed there by three arrows in its chest. Its rusting helm matched the ones that Sol's guards wore: a skull on the brow and a feather at the top.

"There too." Zevran nudged her and pointed to a poor sod rotting in the mud with an arrow through his neck.

In a few more steps Ellin spotted a third lifeless body. There was a trail of dead Antivans, in fact, and it led all the way back to a clearing where the land was actually somewhat dry. The feeling of solid earth beneath Harmony's feet felt like a luxury after just a few hours in the Tellari swamps.

There was a camp here, a big one. Abandoned now, by the look of the burnt out fire pit and the wildlife that had come to claim whatever food had been left behind. Several large tents stood in a circle, open flaps swaying in the breeze. Harmony nodded to the others and they spread out to investigate.

She moved slowly to look at the faces of the corpses scattered about, half convinced that any moment she would come across Alistair lying in the mud, vacant eyes staring up at the stars.

"They're all Crows," she eventually concluded. What was more, the kills all seemed to be from arrow wounds and dagger stabs. None of it seemed like Alistair's work. "Do you see your friend Claudio here?" she asked Zevran.

"Not my friend," he corrected. "And no, none of these is him."

Ellin frowned. "Do you think the King might have-"

She was cut off by a monstrous roar. It was so loud that the night song of the swamp creatures ceased entirely. All creatures fell silent. Hands moved to hilts.

Dread dropped to the pit of Harmony's stomach like a boulder. She _knew_ that sound.

Something stirred the wind and made the trees flail wildly. The clearing flooded with loose leaves. Her hair blew back from her face as she looked up to see.

A great dragon had taken flight.

Its wings were so huge that it blacked out the stars as it passed overhead.

* * *

_~ It happened too fast to process. One moment she was at Alistair's side, daggers in hand, trying to seem fearless in the face of a monster so terrible that its roar seemed to make the sky shake. Cunning and speed had let her get in close enough to stab it several times in the belly and the neck. It had started to seem like they might be able to fight past it._

_Then it seized her, and suddenly the ground seemed so far away. The world became a blur as it tossed her about like a rag doll. The snap of its jaw reduced her armour to ribbons. Its hot, smoky breath boiled her blood. Teeth like longswords ripped into her body with a pain so overwhelming that Harmony wished then and there for the dragon to swallow her down and end the suffering._

_Without warning, it spat her out like a seed found in its teeth. Gracelessly she landed in a heap at its feet. She heard Alistair scream her name. Then the world faded from view. ~_

* * *

"I don't think it saw us," Ellin said once the trees fell still. She sounded unsure though, and kept her eyes fixed on the sky above them.

Just then, a rustling at the edge of the camp caught Nathaniel's attention and he disappeared into the bushes to chase after it. When he emerged a moment later, he had a prisoner in tow: an Antivan Crow, a living one.

The man let out a frightened whimper as Nathaniel dragged him back into the clearing and dropped him in a crumpled heap at Harmony's feet.

"Don't hurt me!" he shrieked. The man was emaciated. His teeth rattled in his skull as he shivered.

"The only one likely to hurt you is that dragon, so keep your voice down," Harmony told him. Her tone was careful. She wanted to put him at ease, but she didn't want to forget that he may have been brought here to hurt Alistair. "Where's Claudio?" she asked him.

The colour in man's cheeks drained away in an instant. "That's him there, what's left of him." He pointed across the clearing to a pile of ash and bone, topped with a caved-in skull.

"Who did that?" she asked, though she wasn't sure she wanted to know the answer.

The man's mouth gaped open, bottom lip quivering in fear. He looked like he was either about to burst into tears or bolt for the trees.

Zevran grabbed him by the collar and pulled him in close. "If you think you'll be safer going back to the Valisti estate to tell them what happened, you're mistaken. They'd kill you for failing to protect your master," he warned.

"You think I don't know that? " the Antivan quivered.

"We can help you out of this swamp. We can get you safely out of the country. You could be free of all this, start fresh," Harmony offered. "But you have to help us first."

The man held his hands up in surrender. " _Si_. I'll tell you everything I know." Zevran let go of him then and he sank to his knees.

"Why did you come here?" Harmony asked him.

He stared ahead blankly for a moment, then Zevran clenched a fist and leaned towards him. He swallowed and looked back to Harmony. "We were to follow the Fereldan King so that he could show us the way to the dragon's lair, then capture him. Claudio wanted us to kill the pirate queen too, but she got away. Then she came back with the witch and the dwarf and they butchered everyone and took the King away."

He paused and looked down at the ground in shame. "When I saw Isabela stab Claudio in the heart, I ran and hid in the bushes."

Alistair had escaped the Crows then? That was a relief, but they still knew nothing of what had brought him here, or why Claudio had followed.

"What did your master want with Alistair?" she asked.

"He asked the same, when we captured him. I was never told. Claudio had a patron, someone in Tevinter who would set him dangerous tasks. This was one of those, but that's all we were told."

"And how did he end up like that?" Harmony nodded to the pile of ashes.

The sight of Claudio's remains made the man shake. "The Witch of the Wilds."

"Witch of the Wilds?" Ellin repeated.

"Was it Morrigan? Flemeth?" Harmony asked. One had vanished and the other was supposed to be dead, but neither answer would have surprised her.

Zevran stepped forward. "We have our own Witch of the Wilds in Antiva. Yavana."

" _Si_ , Yavana," said the man. "She dragged Claudio back into this world and demanded the name of his patron, the name of the one who wanted your King. Claudio's skin burned away as he spoke it, he was in such agony. It seemed like such a small thing to go to so much trouble over."

"What was the name? Did you hear it?"

He nodded mutely.

"Say it!" Harmony urged.

"Aurelian Titus," he breathed.

* * *

_~ Brief patches of clarity…_

_Coming down the mountain, cradled in Alistair's arms. His face deathly pale. Her blood soaking into his hands. His voice screaming for Wynne as their camp came into view. Sten gazing down at her shattered body and swallowing, looking the closest to panicked that she had ever seen._

_Wynne and Morrigan hovering over, flooding magic into her bones, urging her to live. Closing her eyes and feeling the promise of peace in the darkness, if only she would let go._

_But she couldn't let go. Not now. She couldn't leave Alistair alone against the blight._

_Some time later she opened her eyes to a strange place. A four-poster bed, high in the towers of Castle Redcliffe. Alistair sat beside her, holding her hand in his, face sick with worry. He released a long held breath at the sight of her eyes opening._

" _I was so scared that I'd lost you." His voice was scarcely more than a whisper, like it was a secret he was frightened to tell._

_It didn't matter what he'd kept from her, not anymore, not now she could see how much he cared. In that moment she made a silent wish. She wished for a future that was certain, for a destiny of her own choosing, for a life with Alistair. She managed a small smile. She managed to squeeze his hand._

_At that moment, Leliana appeared in the doorway._

" _It worked! The ashes have worked. Arl Eamon is recovering," she reported. There was so much excitement in her voice over the miracle that had happened. "He wants to talk to you, Alistair."_

" _We did it," Alistair gasped. He let go of Harmony's hand and jumped to his feet. She could tell her was almost overcome with emotion at the news._

" _You should go to him," she urged with a smile._

_He nodded. He leaned in close and planted a kiss on her forehead. Then he followed Leliana out of the room._

_A bittersweet victory. Things would be different now. Arl Eamon would want to put Alistair forward as King, she knew that already. It was the only logical way to defeat their enemies in Denerim. She was going to lose him to Ferelden, and it would all be for the best._

_So much for wishes…~_

* * *

Gone.

Harmony crouched down beside the pile of ashes and broken bones.

Off in the distance, the dragon lifted its head to the sky and let out a blood-curdling howl.

"Maker's breath," Nathaniel whispered.

"She sounds furious. Do you think she's about to rampage?" Ellin asked quietly.

Maybe Harmony's sanity was ebbing away, but she heard the dragon and felt she understood it. There was terrible loss there. It was a song of anger and heartbreak. It was the sound a lonely soul makes when left behind. It was the cry of the deserted.

Unwilling to stand in that open space a moment longer, Claudio's man squealed in terror and fled for the shelter of the bushes. Nobody gave chase.

Zevran drew his blades ready to charge in at the monster. "This is going to be a tricky fight without a mage. But Ellin is built like a battering ram and you won't get better ranged support than Nathaniel. We'll manage it somehow," he assured them.

Harmony glanced up at her elven friend. "Put your daggers away, Zevran."

"You want to just walk away from such a creature?" He stared at her incredulously, a look in his eyes like he wasn't even sure he knew her anymore.

"If we can," she answered.

"Why? Because it's not _your_ people it's going to be eating?" His lip curled into a snarl. "I thought you were better than that."

Harmony released a heavy sigh, wishing more than anything that her friend would stop glaring so irately. "I didn't come all this way to die in a battle that I have no hope of winning."

"Who _are_ you?" he spat. "Where is the fearless Grey Warden who filled all of us with the courage to overcome an archdemon?"

 _Broken,_ Harmony wanted to say. _I'm sorry Zevran._ "It's better to admit when you're outmatched," she heard herself say. "You taught me that."

He snorted. "Why not just admit that this is about far more than you've told us? Before Alistair left, he told me you'd been holed up in Highever for weeks and barely sent word."

"We had no word from you at Vigil's Keep either," Nathaniel added. He didn't seem to share Zevran's outrage, and the way his feet kicked at the mud made it clear he was uncomfortable. Yet he still spoke.

Ellin just stared her in the face and said nothing.

"My Grey Warden is faster than this," Zevran continued. "She's stronger. I know you haven't had so many darkspawn to fight these past few years, but this isn't you. You're deadlier than this."

His words hit her like a punch in the gut. They knocked the air from her lungs.

"Harmony, you've become distant," said Nathaniel. "And it can't just be because Alistair is gone. You were separated from him for months when you became the Warden Commander."

"Please stop." Their faces became blurred by the tears she could no longer hold at bay. She buried her face in her hands, trying in vain to hide it from them.

Even her tears wouldn't deter Zevran. "We would all of us follow you to the void and back, you know this. But you must say what it is you're hiding," he insisted.

Harmony felt her whole being tremble. She could barely breathe, let alone speak.

"Back off, elf." Suddenly Ellin's voice rumbled through like crashing thunder and made everyone shudder and stop.

"But…" Zevran began.

"You heard me." There was no questioning that tone.

There was a long pause. Everything in the swamp seemed to fall silent, even the dragon. The Queen felt Ellin crouch down beside her and rest a hand on her shoulder.

"It's not your fault, Harmony."

She looked up in surprise as Ellin called her by name for the very first time.

"It's not your fault Alistair left. He's a good man; he didn't do it to hurt you. He didn't know how to make things better, and somehow he got it into his head that chasing a ghost was the thing to do."

Harmony had to take a few deep breaths before she could speak, and even then her voice quivered uncontrollably. "I know."

"My sister had a stillbirth," Ellin quietly confessed.

Harmony's heart pounded against her rib cage. Her bodyguard had known then?

"It's not easy to move on from heartbreak like that. I can't say it didn't change her."

And there was the heart of the matter. There was the thing Harmony hadn't been able to talk about to anyone, not even Alistair. Her body had rejected his child. Her body had let a future King of Ferelden wither and die in her womb.

"I failed him. I failed everyone." A nation, no less. She could end a blight for them, but she couldn't give them an heir.

"Don't say that," Ellin snapped. "Don't you dare say that! Slayers of archdemons aren't allowed to say such things."

"We knew it could happen. Grey Wardens have tainted blood, it makes having children… unlikely. That's why we kept the pregnancy secret. When it started to show, I went home to Highever to be in isolation. Alistair, Teagan, my brother Fergus and our healer were the only ones who knew." It was the sort of speech that was supposed to be wracked with sobs, but Harmony's eyes were dry now, as if she had run out of tears to give the matter. That didn't mean it hurt any less.

Zevran suddenly looked ill. He knelt down beside her and took her hands in his. "Harmony, I had no idea. I…"

"They had to cut my son out of me," she interrupted, pulling her hands away. She felt she had to keep speaking, had to tell them everything all at once. She felt she wouldn't have the courage to discuss it again. "I'm told it was a miracle I lived through it. Alistair rushed to Highever to see me after it happened. He tried to console me, but there was nothing he could say to reach me. Soon duty called him back to Denerim. I kept myself hidden away and I grieved alone."

There was a long pause. Harmony recalled the sorrow in her husband's eyes. She remembered pulling away as he tried to draw her close.

"Now I stop to think about it, I see that he was grieving too. We should have helped each other through it, but I pushed him away," she confessed. It was all so clear now. Of course the man had run off to a Maker-forsaken swamp after that.

She took hold of her daggers in a firm grip and rose to her feet. "Well no more secrets. No more self-pity. No more crying over what might have been. I'm tired of it. Too tired."

"So then… do you have a plan?" Zevran asked. His voice wobbled so unsurely, she couldn't quite believe it was really coming from him.

"Just a vague one," she seethed. "If this Aurelian Titus wants my husband, he's going to have to go through me."

"I'm with you, my queen," Nathaniel said. He sank to one knee and bowed his head.

"As am I," Ellin declared, doing the same.

"My dear Grey Warden." Even Zevran was kneeling now.

The trees started to sway again. Loose leaves swirled through the clearing. The stars vanished overhead, and the dragon took flight once more.

* * *

_~ "Grey warden, I believe your Prince has wandered off alone," Zevran murmured. She followed his gaze to see Alistair disappearing into the trees._

" _He's allowed to wander where he likes. What of it?" She turned back to the campfire and pretended not to care._

_Zevran leaned in closer and smiled. "Stars. Moonlight. A forest by a lake. There are worse times and places to confess one's undying devotion, no?"_

" _Arl Eamon wants to make him King. He doesn't need me complicating his life further with my ill-advised infatuation."_

" _I suspect that might be exactly what he needs." Zevran stifled a yawn. "Besides, I tire of seeing the two of you in this clumsy dance. Go over there and kiss the man this minute, or I may have to rethink my decision not to assassinate you," he jested._

" _Because that worked out so well for you the last time," she laughed._

" _Think how heartbroken you'll be when you have to slit my throat."_

_She sighed in resignation and got to her feet. "I'm not naming my children after you."_

_He pretended to gasp. "You wound me."_

_She found Alistair down by the lake, sitting on a rock, staring out across the moonlit waters. A twig breaking underfoot gave away her approach. He seemed startled as he looked back at her over his shoulder._

" _I'm sorry, I just came to see if…" Her voice trailed off as he held a hand out to her. She laced her fingers with his and let him pull her down beside him._

" _So," he gazed up at the night sky. "All this time we've spent together... you know; the tragedy, the brushes with death, the constant battles with the whole Blight looming over us... Will you miss it once it's over?"_

" _Miss the battles?" she asked quietly. "Or miss you?"_

_He shifted his legs so that he could turn to face her, but he was suddenly too shy to look her in the eyes. "I know it might sound strange, considering we haven't known each other for very long, but I've come to... care for you. A great deal."_

_The words made Harmony's heart flutter. They made butterflies dance in her stomach. They made her wonder if she might be lost in some wonderful dream._

" _I think maybe it's because we've gone through so much together, I don't know. Or maybe I'm imagining it. Maybe I'm fooling myself." His twinkling eyes looked right into hers in that moment. "Am I? Fooling myself? Or do you think you might ever... feel the same way about me?"_

_She swallowed. "I think I already do."_

_He smiled then. His face moved close to hers, so close that she could feel the brush of his lips as he spoke. "So I fooled you did I? Good to know."_

_Harmony felt herself melt the moment their lips met. The way he brushed her hair from her face. The way his arm tightened around her waist. The way he smiled as he came up for air. It felt like a promise that everything was going to be all right after all._

* * *

The Northern Passage. Par Vollen was somewhere to the north, Rivain somewhere to the south, or so they told him. Alistair had to trust that he wasn't lost, but it felt like he might be about to fall off the edge of the world.

Isabela's ship bobbed gently on the waves. All around them was black water and black sky. Unconsciously he twisted his wedding band around his ring finger and stared into the canvas of stars above.

Harmony seemed a hundred years away. He imagined his wife standing on the deck beside him, squeezing his hand, head leaning against his shoulder. She could make everything better with a gentle smile. His treacherous mind conjured a child beside them, a son, grinning with excitement and leaning out over the railing. Tears welled up and he had to shut his eyes for a moment to hold them back.

When he opened them again, he was alone. Of course he was. How could it be any other way?

Alistair Theirin, the man cursed to have no family.

Wasn't that what he'd always been?

**END OF PART ONE**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You've probably noticed that I've written "end of part one" at the end of this chapter. This just means that we've reached the end of the chapters that follow alongside The Silent Grove comics. In part two we'll be seeing what Harmony and her party get up to during the events of Those Who Speak. Demons and assassins and qunari – oh my!
> 
> I hope you've been enjoying the story so far and I hope you'll join me here for part two!


	7. Take the Dragon by the Horns

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Before Harmony leaves Antiva, there's just the slight matter of a Crow master assassin to deal with. And his men. Oh, and a high dragon.

Chapter Seven – Take the Dragon by the Horns

The Tellari Swamps held more corpses than answers. There seemed little reason to stay. At least Harmony had a name to go on:  _Aurelian Titus_. Whatever other information she needed would have to come from elsewhere.

In the mean time there was another problem. A Crow shaped problem.

They waded through the marshes back towards civilisation. The great dragon they had found in the swamp had circled overhead a few times before soaring off into the distance. For a long time it had stayed a winged shadow near the horizon, but now it had vanished entirely.

When the nearby town of Seleny came into view, Harmony broke into a determined march. The wound in her leg had been healing nicely. It no longer forced a limp into her stride, but every step still brought her pain. She wished Wynne were there to work her magic on it, even if said healing came with an endless lecture on why it had been reckless to chase Alistair all the way to Antiva.

Nathaniel had to jog to catch up to Harmony's relentless pace. "Remind me why we're walking right into midst of people who want your friend dead?" he asked once beside her.

"Because if Zev runs now, he'll always be running. I freed him from these people and I intend to see that he stays free." Harmony kept her glare fixed on the town ahead and didn't slow down for a second.

"And how do you feel, elf, about hiding behind the Queen's skirts like an infant?" she heard Ellin ask.

"If anything I would rather… something about getting under your skirts… or getting you out of them…" Zevran trailed off and let out a long sigh. "I am not myself. You'll have to make your own lewd remarks for a while."

Harmony looked back over her shoulder spared him a cautious smile. They had never before argued like they had back in the swamp. Then her confession had crashed onto him like a boulder. It would be a while before things were back to normal between them, but at least he was trying.

"So what's the plan?" asked Nathaniel. "We just walk into town and wait to be ambushed?"

Harmony drew to a halt and turned to her friends. "I'm walking in. You're staying out here where it's safe. All three of you."

"What?" Ellin cried. The way she covered her mouth afterwards made it seem like the noise had escaped her lips before she'd had time to stop it.

"Sol's already tried to kill Nathaniel to prove a point: you two are expendable to him. And Zevran's his target," Harmony explained. "Me? I have a nice shiny crown and that means I'm worth more alive than dead."

"Your Majesty, I really must…" Ellin began.

Zevran cut her off. "She has the right of it. Sol won't kill her."

"You see?" said Harmony.

"It's still not much of a plan," the elf added.

The Queen of Ferelden smiled warmly at the people who worked so hard to protect her. It was her turn to do the same for them.

"You can't always wait around for a good plan to show itself. Sometimes you have to just take a bad plan and roll with it. Take the dragon by the horns and hope for the best." At that, she pulled the hood of her cloak up over her head and turned towards the town, ready to march into battle.

"Does that usually work?" Ellin asked her.

"I'm still alive," she answered with a shrug.

* * *

Harmony stepped alone into Seleny's square. There was no sound other than the rain battering the cobblestones and her feet splashing through the puddles.

She felt her skin prickle, felt the hairs on the back of her neck stand on end and knew that there were arrows trained on her from all sides. She didn't need to glance up to the windows or the rooftops of the houses that lined the clearing to confirm that she was surrounded.

The square's market stalls were completely abandoned. The only person out in the open was Sol Castana. He stood before the doors of the chantry, staring upwards, letting the rain soak into his face. It wasn't until she was standing right in front of him that he even glanced her way.

"It's quiet here," Harmony observed. "Your haven't scared off all the locals, I hope?"

"Pleased to see you too, Queen of Hearts," he said with a wayward smile. "The locals are in hiding. Some inbred farmer's son thought he saw a dragon. Ridiculous, I know," he chuckled. "But people are easily panicked this near to the swamps."

He was holding a longsword that was still in its scabbard. He balanced its tip on the ground and elegantly leaned against it as if it were a cane.

"We found Prince Claudio for you," she announced. "What was left of him, anyway. It seems he met a witch in his travels. I don't think she liked him."

There was a careful pause. "So it is. Regrettable," was all he said. Whatever he felt about the news, Harmony couldn't tell. "And tell me, sweet lady, where is Zevran? He has done the Crows a service. He should be here to collect his reward."

"Drop the act," she snapped. "We both know the only reward you have planned is a slit throat and a shallow grave."

Sol grinned widely in amusement. "So you have come to bargain for his life, then?"

"Why must I bargain for something you seem to have no care for?" she asked him. "Why not just give this one small thing to the Queen of Hearts?"

"Small thing," he repeated. "Small thing?" There was a snort of disbelief, and the grin vanished from his face, replaced with a dangerous glare. Now serious Sol was speaking, and serious Sol made Harmony nervous.

"Tell me, how big is Antiva's army?" he asked.

The trick question made her pause for a moment. "You don't have one."

" _Si_. The Queen of Ferelden knows this. The Empress of Orlais knows this. The Kings and Magisters and Viscounts of all Thedas know this. Yet none march to claim our lands. Why? Because you all know that whoever ordered such an assault would not live to see another dawn. You all know to fear the assassins of this nation."

He stepped forwards as he spoke, moving near enough to brush a rogue strand of hair from her face. She wanted to bat his hand away, but his tone was so dangerous she thought it better to keep him talking.

"Your whoreson elf is an affront to this arrangement." Sol spat on the ground to emphasise his disgust. "When he failed to kill you, he could have stayed beyond our borders and lived a quiet life. Instead he chose to slay his former brothers in arms. He chose to scream from the rooftops that he had failed us and lived. He delighted in it. He sewed seeds of chaos, caring nothing for the innocent lives that would be lost should outsiders think us ripe for plucking."

"So long story short, Zevran made you look bad," she said dismissively. Sol let it go.

"Securing the reputation of the Crows also keeps Antiva secure." He said it so vehemently that she scarcely recognised him as the smirking lothario she had met out at sea. "That is my sole purpose, my life's work. And Zevran has been making my task difficult for many years now. So I assure you, his life is no small thing to me."

"I won't let you take him," she swore.

He took a deep breath and stared down at his sword. "Sol Castana is not a name often heard beyond these shores. Perhaps it's time I made it clear to you exactly who you're dealing with." At that, he drew his blade.

Harmony jumped back from him and reached back for her daggers. She drew them just in time that her blades caught his first attack. The clash of steel rang through the silent square like the toll of a bell. His Crows watched from the rooftops and did nothing to intervene.

A kick aimed for his knee was easily dodged. She followed through with a flurry of blows, all aimed for body parts that weren't easily blocked. His longsword somehow danced through the attacks. It spun her around and left her open to him. In the blink of an eye he was at her back, his dagger pressed to her throat. His sword-arm snaked around her waist to pull her tight against him.

Harmony had crossed blades with Tevinter slavers, Antivan Crows, Qunari mercenaries and dragon cultists. She had fought in dwarven provings. She had faced werewolves and abominations, darkspawn and the undead. But she had never seen a man as quick as this.

She felt him blow her hair aside. Felt his nose brush against her skin as he smelled her neck. "If Zevran was truly your friend, he would have warned you about me," he purred into her ear.

She realised then that this was no true duel. He was toying her. He assumed she would think herself trapped once in his grasp. He thought a dagger to her throat would make her raise her hands in surrender.

She recalled Zevran's words from the first night they'd met Sol.  _Only try to fight him if he threatens you. And fight like an Antivan. There's no room for Fereldan honour here._

"He did warn me," she replied. She snapped her head back to strike him in the face. She felt the back of her skull make something in his nose crunch. Before he knew what hit him, she had pushed his dagger arm away from her and spun out of his grasp.

Blood gushed from his broken nose, dripping over his lips and teeth. He wiped a sleeve across his face and started to laugh. "I suppose I asked for that," he chuckled.

Just then, the noon bells began to sound from the chantry. Their peals echoed from wall to wall through the empty square. There was nothing unusual about it. Hundreds of chantries across Thedas rang their bells to mark the middle of the day. But few chantry bells were within the hearing range of a rampaging dragon. Few were in a position to call such a creature to it like a dinner bell.

There was the sudden sound of flapping wings. Colossal wings that stirred the air around them. Sol and Harmony exchanged uneasy glances. She felt a shiver run the length of her spine.

Some of Sol's Crows up on the rooftops had seen something. Most began to whimper and squeal in panic, but there was one coherent shout that she needed no help translating. " _Dragón_!"

There was no time to breathe before something cataclysmic crashed down in front of them. The paved ground turned to dust beneath its feet, spreading cracks line veins through the cobblestones around it. The dragon spat out a mangled corpse, then let out a roar so loud that Harmony thought her ears were going to burst.

Its bulk almost filled the square. A swish of its tail smashed through a wall of the building behind it. It spotted Harmony then, and stomped with one of its front legs to try and pin her to the ground. She was only just quick enough to roll out of the way.

She heard voices screaming her name and looked over to the street that had led her into the square. Nathaniel, Ellin and Zevran were sprinting towards her. Evidently they had seen the dragon approach. Nathaniel already had his shortbow drawn and was firing shots into the beast's hind legs as he ran in. It didn't seem to notice.

Arrows and crossbow bolts rained down from the rooftops as Sol's Crows began to offer their aid. Most ricocheted off the beast's black scales, but some became lodged in the folds of its wings. It screeched up at them, somehow seeming even angrier than it had before.

A serpentine neck swooped down at Harmony. Its head was twice her size. Its teeth snapped at her, but she tumbled backwards to stay out of its grasp. While its attention was elsewhere, Sol ran in to stab the creature in the belly. It was enough to draw blood, but far from a mortal blow.

It reared up on its hind legs and glared down at the humans beneath it. For a moment Harmony found herself frozen on the spot.

She remembered the first dragon she had met. She remembered feeling like she was already dead as it snapped her up in its jaw.

She was so consumed by her fear in that moment, that she was barely aware of the fiery torrent of dragon's breath billowing her way.

Then, like a battering ram, Ellin crashed into her full-force and knocked her clear of the blast. Together they slammed into the ground. For a moment Harmony couldn't move, crushed beneath her armoured bodyguard. Then Ellin rolled clear and hoisted the Queen back to her feet.

Nathaniel was purposely drawing the beast's attention to give them time to regroup. He tore past it, shouting at the top of his lungs while he fired arrows at its snout. It turned with surprising agility to try and whip the archer with its tail, but he jumped high in the air so that the attack missed, then bolted in the other direction.

Zevran ran in then, launched himself into a mighty leap and sank both daggers into one of the dragon's wings. The leathery folds gave little resistance to the blades, and Zevran tore down them like a pirate through a ship's canvas. Howling, the dragon unfurled the shredded wing then and shook Zevran loose. He was catapulted across the square, but rolled into his landing and bounced right back to his feet.

Panicked, the beast tried to take flight, but with one wing torn to shreds, it couldn't manage to rise more than a few feet off the ground. With the chance to escape removed, it lunged forward to try and snap up the elf that had injured it so.

Harmony realised then that she had a choice. A choice not unlike the one Zevran was facing with the Crows. She could live in fear forever and avoid the obstacles that she might not be strong enough to overcome. Or she could take the dragon by the horns.

While its head was down and its attention was elsewhere, Harmony took her chance. She sprinted up to it, buried one dagger deep in its neck and used the hilt to swing herself up onto the back of the dragon's neck.

Desperately it thrashed around, smashing the square apart with its great whip of a tail. Harmony held on for dear life, trying not to notice how far away the ground had become. Through the dizziness and the nausea of its frantic movements, with all the strength and determination she could muster, she thrust her second dagger down into the top of its skull.

The dragon screeched in pain, then fell silent.

Its head dropped to the ground like a sack of bricks, and Harmony tumbled off onto the cobblestones.

For a moment all she could do was lie flat on the ground, catch her breath and stare up at the sky. She found herself laughing. It felt like searching high and low for something thought lost, only to find it in her pocket all along. In spite of everything she was still formidable, she was still a force to be reckoned with. She could still be fearless.

Ellin was there to pull her up to her feet. "Take the dragon by the horns," the bodyguard repeated.

"Not such a bad plan after all, was it?" Harmony said as she dusted herself off. Ellin pursed her lips and said nothing.

"Where's Sol?" she heard Zevran ask.

Harmony scanned the square. She realised then that she hadn't seen the man since the dragon had breathed fire. Anxiously, she looked around for a charred body. She didn't like Sol much, but that wasn't a death she wished on anyone.

After a moment, Nathaniel nudged her with his elbow and nodded over to where their Antivan foe lay on the ground, body protruding from the remains of an overturned cart. His chest was heaving with great effort to pump air back into his lungs. He was trapped.

His Crows had also seen him, they were scrambling from the rooftops and the edges of the square to try and be the first to reach him, but Harmony was much closer. In just a moment she was crouched beside Sol, dagger pressed to his neck.

"Tell your dogs to stay where they are," she ordered.

Sol swallowed a groan of pain, then called out " _Detener!_ " His men froze in place as if they'd been turned to stone.

"I don't want any arrows pointed this way either," she added.

" _Gettate le armi!_ " he called to them. Bows were lowered to the ground and hands raised in surrender.

"Good, now we're going to have a little talk."

Sol sighed in resignation. "They'll swarm on you if you kill me."

"But you want to live. So you'll agree to help me and we'll call a truce," said Harmony.

He rolled his eyes. "You want me to promise not to harm Zevran? I can't give you that, and it would do you little good."

"Oh?"

"If I were to stop hunting your friend, my life would be forfeit anyway, and another Crow would come for him," he explained, shaking his head.

She pressed the blade tighter against his throat. "You don't have anything else we need, Sol Castana," she seethed.

"Wait," she heard Zevran's voice from over her shoulder. "What do you know of Aurelian Titus?"

Sol's eyes narrowed as he gazed up at the elf. "I've heard the name spoken, though only in hushed whispers."

"He can't help us," Ellin grunted impatiently. "Just kill him, Your Majesty."

A part of her was ready to do it. To end him. She was tired of these Antivans and their games. All of it just served to slow her quest to find Alistair.

"Wait," said Sol. "There is a woman the Crows sometimes go to for answers when a trail has gone cold. A Rivaini seer by the name of Callista. She lives not far from Ayesleigh. I can take you there, in exchange for my life."

Harmony grimaced. "And what of Zevran?"

"I'll say he escaped our grasp. It will be a cover. I'll say Zevran's trail went cold so I had to go to the seer for advice." It was the faint hint of panic in his voice that made her believe him.

"Good man," she said with a nod. "Let's pay a visit to this seer then."

Nathaniel and Zevran set to work on freeing the man, and the Crows that surrounded them flocked in to help. Ellin meanwhile, pulled Harmony aside for a private word.

"You cannot trust that Antivan," she groaned. "This is your worst plan yet."

"Correct." There was no sense arguing.

"Your Majesty…" she began, in that tone that made  _Your Majesty_  sound like  _you idiot_.

Harmony just shrugged. "I've got nothing else to go on. And we have a King to track."

"Are we going to end up regretting this?" Ellin asked seriously.

Harmony paused.

Suddenly she recalled the hopelessness in her mother's eyes as she left her parents to the mercy of a traitor.

She remembered a dwarf named Bhelen who had been clever enough to learn her story first, then used the word "usurper" to tug at her heartstrings and get her to side with him.

She remembered thinking that Loghain Mac Tir might be more useful as an ally than a corpse, but staying silent as Alistair struck the man's head from his shoulders.

She remembered promising her friend Anora a crown and then locking her up for refusing to marry her father's killer.

"I seem to end up regretting a lot of things," she eventually answered. "I'll be surprised if this makes the top five."


	8. Seer

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Harmony and her party head to Rivain in search of a Seer who can help them learn where Alistair has gone.

It turned out that saving the town from a High Dragon wasn't the sort of thing a person could follow with a quiet exit. Once the beast had fallen, the townsfolk began to venture out to offer their thanks. In no time at all a celebration had begun with the visitors from Ferelden at its centre.

"It's all fun and games until somebody notices they've a dragon the size of a barn to dispose of," Ellin had scoffed.

Now it was evening, and they found themselves in a crowded tavern filled with music and dancing. Antivan songs were spirited, all furious lute strumming and fast clapping. Harmony didn't know what to make of it, but was fascinated to watch.

She could only imagine how the nobles of the landsmeet would react if they could see her there, sat on the bar, clapping along. Her feet were bare while her boots dried by the fire. Her leggings were rolled up to her knees. She was adorned from head to toe with rings and bangles and silk scarves gifted to her by grateful townsfolk. She looked more like a pirate than the wife of a king.

Zevran grinned up at her over the rim of his mug.

"What?" she asked him.

"You were the Harmony I remember today," he answered. "Good to have you back, my friend."

The bartender was behind them, cleaning a glass with a wet rag. "Are you Crows?" he asked, half stumbling over words that were foreign to him.

Harmony had told the townsfolk her name, but not her title. Her friends had understood that it was simpler not to mention her status. Sol, meanwhile, had been happy to let the people assume they had the Crows to thank.

"No. We are-" Zevran began.

"We're our own guild," Harmony butted in, Antivan brandy making her brazen. "This is our leader, Zevran Arainai." She couldn't help but laugh at the puzzled glance Zevran shot her.

"Oh," the man arched an eyebrow. "What do you call this guild?"

There was a long pause. Then Zevran's mouth spread into a roguish smile. " _Cani di Guerra_ ," he answered. Then he repeated it in King's tongue so that Harmony could understand, "Dogs of War."

"You have our gratitude for saving Seleny,  _Cani di Guerra_ ," the man bowed his head to them. Then he brought them each another glass of brandy, on the house.

"You would have me rival my old guild?" Zevran asked, once the man had shuffled away.

Harmony just shrugged. "Isn't it better than waging war on them? You could do what you love and keep being a thorn in their side. Besides, Sol told me no one in their right mind would attack Antiva with the threat of the Crows looming over it. Ferelden could use an added deterrent like that to keep our neighbours at bay. If you felt like basing yourself in Denerim, that is."

Zevran stared off into space for a moment, eyes twinkling with mischief.

"Come," he said then, holding out his hand to her. She took it and he pulled her down off the bar. "Drink up," he ordered. She did as she was told, and swallowed her tot of brandy in one great gulp.

"Are we going somewhere?"

"I need an evening to think this through, and you need to let your hair down for once. So drink, dance and be merry. Forget about Ferelden and its King for a couple of hours. You deserve the break. I'll be here to keep an eye on you."

He tried to pull her out into the open space in the middle of the room, where the tables had all been pushed back against the walls to make room celebrating. She dug her heels in to stop him from throwing her into the thick of dancing Antivans.

Ellin was stood at attention with her back to the wall, keeping an eye on everything. Harmony shot her a pleading look, but the bodyguard just shrugged and stayed where she was. It was Ellin's job to protect the queen from physical danger. The danger of tripping over her own feet and looking like an idiot was Harmony's problem.

"I don't know how to dance like an Antivan," she protested.

"You know how to fight like one. It's much the same, just with fewer pointy things," the elf assured her.

Suddenly Nathaniel was beside them. "She's lying to you," he told Zevran. "Her mother held dances all the time at Castle Highever. Who was it that taught you your steps again, Lady Cousland? Wasn't it your Antivan sister-in-law?"

She could tell the man had already had a few drinks because he was actually grinning at her.

"I'm sure I don't know what you're talking about," Harmony sniffed.

Nathaniel chuckled and sank into a gentlemanly bow. "My lady, may I have this dance?".

Reluctantly, she took his hand. As he pulled her into the centre of the dance floor, she realised that while she didn't recognise the tune being played, the steps at least were familiar. It was a slow melody, not something to get one's feet in a tangle. She smiled up at Nathaniel as he took the lead.

In the corner of her eye she could see Sol watching from his seat. At least she didn't need to worry about him cutting in; the fight had left him too beaten up to do much more than tap his feet along to the tune.

"I can't believe I still remember how to do this," her partner muttered.

"We never did dance together at any of my mother's parties." She remembered young Nathaniel in all his finery, stood off to the side with a glass of wine in his hand. He had been broody even then.

"You were still a girl when I left for the Free Marches." He twirled her around in a circle and then pulled her in close again. "You were a lady by the time I came back to visit, but Thomas had his eye on you. He made me promise not to ask."

"Thomas did?" she almost laughed, but stopped as she recalled that Thomas had died eight years ago. "Maker… I used to wonder what I'd done to offend you."

"My sincerest apologies," he said, bowing his head.

"It all seems like another life now." In fact it seemed like another world entirely, Ferelden was so far behind them. Her mother would have had a heart attack to see the two of them in each other's arms in some backwater tavern, cheeks flushed red from too much brandy.

"I know what you mean," he concurred. The dance called for him to spin her about so that she was facing away from him. One hand held hers high in the air, the other wrapped around her waist and pulled her in close. They promenaded in a circle around the dance floor, following the other couples.

"Why did you follow me all this way?" It felt easier to ask him while they didn't have to face each other. "Don't think I'm not grateful, I am. It's just… you're not obliged to escort me half way across the world, as a Grey Warden or a noble of Ferelden."

"What about as a friend?" he asked over her shoulder.

"Even as that."

The step changed and he turned her to face him again. "Harmony, you've handed me your command. You're going out of your way to see that Zevran has a better life. You try at every turn to convince us to leave your side and return home. It's as if you don't see yourself returning from this adventure."

Before she could respond, the song came to an end. The Antivan men brought the dance to a close by taking the Antivan women in their arms and lowering them towards the ground. For two wellborn Fereldans with an unhappy past, that didn't seem inappropriate. Instead Harmony pulled away from him and curtseyed with an imaginary skirt. Nathaniel bowed in response.

"Isn't a good commander always prepared?" she asked him.

Rising from his bow, Nathaniel opened his mouth ready to say something. Before he got the chance though, the musicians struck up a new, much livelier tune. One of the townsfolk swept in, took Harmony by the arm and dragged her into the next dance before she had a chance to step aside.

This new dance involved linking arms with a partner and spinning with them in a circle. Every few bars the Antivans flung her across the floor into the waiting arms of a new partner. She looked back to find that Nathaniel had also been dragged into the chaos of it.

Their eyes met for a moment across the room, then Harmony looked away. She was tired of his concerned gaze. She was tired of everyone worrying about her. She was tired of everything being so grave. Now was the time for dancing, for forgetting, for drinking.

She extricated herself from the dance and sauntered back to the bar. It wasn't long before the evening became a blur of brandy and twirling, clapping Antivans.

* * *

Harmony woke to find herself curled up in her bunk aboard Sol's ship. Her head was in Ellin's lap and there was a bucket beside her; evidently one she had already made use of.

"Good morning, Your Majesty," her bodyguard said, voice deadpan. Harmony could only groan in response. Nothing much about it seemed good.

She could feel from the gentle rocking of the ship that their journey was underway. Rivain awaited, and so did the Seer they had been told about. A woman who claimed to glimpse the future. Such a thing seemed… not of the Maker, but it wouldn't be the first time Harmony had trusted in a power she could not understand for the sake of holding onto Alistair.

The light stung her eyes so badly she could barely open them. Her pounding head felt too small to house her brain. "I don't even remember coming aboard."

"I didn't imagine you would," Ellin scoffed.

"You didn't… carry me, did you?" she asked, peering up at her bodyguard.

Ellin shook her head. "You leapt on my back, kicked me in the sides and yelled ' _To battle, horsey!_ '"

"I did no such thing!" Harmony protested. She cringed, suddenly regretting the volume of her own voice.

"You're right," Ellin chortled. "I slung you over my shoulder like a sack of spuds."

"Now I don't know which is true."

Ellin just shrugged. "Pick the one that causes you the least embarrassment."

"Well… thank you, for looking after me." It occurred to Harmony then that she had never before thanked the woman, and that there was a lot she ought to thank her for.

"Antivans are a bad influence on you," Ellin said, rolling her eyes.

The queen of Ferelden nodded as she pulled herself up from the comfort of Ellin's lap. " _Maledire coloro che fare la brandy,"_ she muttered with poor pronunciation.

"I didn't know you spoke the language."

"A few words I picked up from Zev, none of them polite."

Ellin pursed her lips. "And what did that mean?"

"Curse the ones who make the brandy." Harmony tried to manage a mischievous grin, but her face was unwilling.

Sol's ship continued down river, and Ellin spent the time nursing Harmony back to health. It was above and beyond the call of duty for her bodyguard, and it shamed Harmony to have let herself get into such a state.

But the current of the river with them, it barely took any time at all to reach the open sea. Soon the rolling tides of Rialto Bay returned, and so did Ellin's seasickness. Then it was Harmony's turn to care for her bodyguard. By the time Rivain's shores appeared on the horizon, she had spent almost the whole journey holed up in the cabin with the woman who she was beginning to see as a dear friend as well as a protector.

* * *

The sky was grey above the Rivaini coastline, a squall threatening to break at any moment. The air was humid and sticky. Palms swayed in the breeze atop a jagged cliff that looked eager to dash their ship to pieces if they ventured too near. Ravens circled overhead. Their cawing sounded like a warning somehow, as if they might be begging the ship to turn around and head back.

Their destination was a cave set into an outcrop of rocks at the base of those cliffs. Its entrance was half obscured by fog but the lit lanterns outside helped to guide the visitors toward it.

"We've not spoken much since our duel," Sol said to Harmony as the longboat was lowered down into the water. His face bloomed purple and yellow with bruises over the nose she had broken.

"What's there to say? We've called a truce, haven't we? I've spared your life and I've put mine in your hands. All that remains is to see if you stab me in the back."

Sol clasped a hand to his chest as if mortally wounded. "Queen of Hearts, your words are sharp as your daggers."

"It's your word that concerns me," she said coldly.

"My word is my bond," he assured her, bowing his head. "I said I would help you and I shall. Callista is a dangerous woman. For what you seek there may be a heavy price to pay. But I intend to be at your side for this. I intend to be true. I owe you that much."

Nobody spoke as they rowed through the waves. Nathaniel and Ellin took the oars. Sol held a lantern high above his head to keep a look out for shallow rocks. Harmony just stared ahead at the cave, trying to will her fears away. There was no turning back now.

As if sensing her distress, Zevran clapped a hand to her shoulder. He didn't have any words for her, but it helped to know that he was at her side.

A ramshackle dock made from driftwood sat outside the cave's entrance. It was caked in barnacles and seaweed and looked ready to crumble into the bay at any moment, but they tied up their boat and stepped onto dry land all the same.

The mist in the air was lit by the eerie glow of the wisps that floated freely through it. The veil was thin here. Harmony was no mage, but she'd felt it before. In the Blackmarsh, at Soldier's Peak and in the Circle Tower. There was a strangeness in the air that made her light-headed. It felt like that odd place at the edge of sleep where you're sure you're awake right up until the moment a loud noise makes you jerk back into full consciousness.

"It's simple, Queen Harmony," Sol told her soberly. It made her nervous to hear him use her name for once. "You put a sovereign in your hand and you hold it out to her. Then you tell her what it is you seek. She takes the coin and she tells you what she sees in the lines of your palm."

"That's it?" Ellin asked incredulously.

"So one hopes," came Sol's ominous reply.

Harmony suddenly noticed that up close the protrusions of rocks around the cave's entrance looked vaguely like the maw of a dragon. Swallowing her fear, she took the lantern from Nathaniel and marched inside. The sound of footsteps behind her told her that her friends had followed on behind.

"Rare it is for one of your stature to arrive at my door, Fereldan Queen," came a voice from inside.

The inside of the cave was as big as Ferelden's throne room. All was faintly lit by the dim glow of candles. Hundreds of them lined the cave's edges, crowded together on the floor and in spots where the rocks jutted out to form ledges. In the centre of everything there was a table with a chair on each side, and in one of those chairs sat the woman they had travelled for days to speak with.

Callista was terrifying to behold. One eye was a fiery brown so rich it almost appeared red. The other was a milky white. Her greying dreadlocks were braided with charms and bells and coins. Her ears, eyebrows, nostrils and lips were studded with countless piercings. Dark skin and hair blended with the dark of the room, and the whites of her eyes seemed to glow as she gazed up at her visitors with a crooked smile.

"I seek the one who hunts my husband," Harmony said bravely, uncurling her fingers to show the coin in her palm.

"Then let us seek together," she replied. She used her foot to push out the second chair for Harmony. Ferelden's queen glanced nervously to Sol before sinking into it. The seer snatched the gold, then took both of Harmony's hands into her own and began poring over them.

"This is your lifeline," she said. Harmony shivered as the woman traced a finger along the crease in her palm. "Its depth speaks of great vitality and strength. But the line is interrupted and cut short."

"My blood is tainted," Harmony explained calmly. "I'm to die young, it's not news."

Callista nodded gravely to confirm this. "Your fate line though, is prominent," she continued. "You are a woman destined to be remembered long after your death." That was hardly news either. "What you ask of me is nothing small. You are born of a great line, wed to a greater one. And the one you seek is powerful indeed."

"I've overcome worse," Harmony informed her.

"I know you have." Callista's smile revealed a mouth filled with rotting teeth. "We've been waiting for someone like you."

Without warning, one of Callista's jagged, claw-like fingernails dug deep into the flesh of Harmony's palm. A yelp of pain escaped her lips and immediately she heard Ellin behind her drawing her sword.

Fresh blood began to trickle out. Harmony tried to pull her hand away, but Callista latched onto her wrist with a vice-like grip.

"Let her go," Ellin demanded.

Callista wasn't threatened. She just held a finger up to her lips. "Shhh, sleep."

Harmony looked over her shoulder in time to see Ellin's eyes close. The woman crumpled to the ground and the sword fell from her grasp. Zevran followed silently, a panicked look in his eyes as he sank down, followed by Nathaniel.

"This isn't what we came here for," Sol muttered helplessly, and then he also fell.

A tug on Harmony's arm made her look back to the seer.

"It's nothing to worry yourself over, Harmony Queen," the woman said. "Lay down your head."

Blood rose from her palm in droplets, like rain flowing upwards. It dispersed into a fine mist. Callista's eyes and fingertips glowed with magic. Every fibre of Harmony's being told her to reach for her daggers. Instead, she lay her head down on the table and closed her eyes.

* * *

Harmony was exactly where she was supposed to be; under a warm, soft blanket that smelled like home. The curtains of the window above the bed swayed gently in the breeze, letting streaks of sunlight peek through. All was quiet. She felt so comfortable. So safe.

She had dreamed of unhappy adventure, of strangers taking her far away, of people from her past looking at her like she was broken. Vaguely she recalled searching for something dearly treasured that had gotten away from her.

Whatever it was, it had escaped to the back of her mind. She couldn't quite grasp it, and she didn't need to. Everything was back to normal.

She didn't realise she was naked until she felt another body press up against her. A hand caressed her hip and moved up to settle on the bump of her pregnant stomach. Lips planted gentle kisses down her neck and across her shoulder. An unshaven jaw prickled her skin, sending goose bumps down her body.

She smiled into her pillow. "Alistair, I'm supposed to be getting plenty of rest, remember?"

"But you're just so… there's just so much of your…" his hands began to wander as he spoke.

"Yes?"

"…You're just so curvy right now. I can't possibly be expected to keep my hands off you."

Harmony just laughed and rolled over to face him. "I'm as awkward as a calving bronto."

"Absolutely not. You are glowing, and voluptuous and sexy and there's absolutely nothing you can say that will weaken my lust for you," his tone was glib, but only because saying such things embarrassed him.

"…Broodmother," she whispered. Then she laughed and stuck her tongue out at him.

"That's not nice," he pouted. "You don't play fair."

He held out an arm for her, and she moved in close and settled her head on his chest. "You know, we haven't thought up a name yet," he said. "I was thinking, for a girl perhaps we could name her Eleanor."

"After my mother. I like that. Princess Eleanor Theirin." She was touched that Alistair knew her mind so well. The name was perfect.

"What about for a boy?" she asked him. Alistair kissed her forehead, then looked down at her and smiled.

"Duncan," they decided in unison.

"Prince Duncan Theirin." Harmony couldn't help but laugh a little. "Duncan would have found that so embarrassing."

Without warning, Alistair's arms wrapped around her and squeezed her tightly. "I'm going to love this baby so much," he promised. "I'm going to make sure it always knows what it is to have a caring family."

Harmony realised then that her baby meant more to Alistair than she had known. He had been raised a bastard, never knowing his parents, clinging steadfastly to anything that slightly resembled that kind of a connection. Now he would have a family of his own.

"Me too," she whispered, tears pricking at her eyes now that she understood what she was giving to the man she loved. She closed her eyes and buried her face in his chest.

"You and I are going to raise a great leader," he told her. It seemed a strange thing to say in that moment, but she supposed it was important for a King to think of such things.

"A ruler to make Ferelden flourish," he continued.

Something didn't seem quite right. Somehow it sounded like there was another voice behind Alistair's. A deep and unfamiliar voice.

"Someone to bring the rest of Thedas to its knees," it said to her.

Harmony's eyes shot wide open. "Unhand me, demon."


	9. Vex and Delight

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Trapped in the Fade, Harmony tries her best to reunite her friends and make an escape.

Harmony cursed herself inwardly. It wasn't her first time lost in the fade, but desperation had blinded her to this obvious trap. Now there was nothing for it but to try and find a way out.

"I'm not with child," Harmony snapped at Alistair, or rather the demon pretending to be him. "Nor am I your plaything." She jumped to her feet and wrapped the bed-sheet around her naked body.

"Come now," it purred softly, gazing up at her with Alistair's bedroom eyes. "You could be both if you wanted to be. Does the sweet prince not do it for you?"

The demon rolled across the bed and rose up beside her. Its shape went blurry for a moment, then suddenly it looked like Zevran. "Would you prefer the elven bad boy instead?"

A laugh, and the demon became Nathaniel. "Perhaps the brooding boy next door?"

It stepped forward and grasped her by the shoulders. "Or maybe it's the swarthy, older man you fancy?" Now Harmony was looking at Duncan.

Disgusted, she pulled away. "I don't think about other men that way."

"You do worry about Alistair being unfaithful though." Duncan melted away and became Isabela, a twisted smirk on her lips. "But you  _did_ say I could borrow him for the summer."

It was useless to snap at the creature. The best thing to do was ignore its games. "Where are my friends?" she demanded.

Seeing that it wasn't going to get a rise out of her, the demon sank back into its true form. A mostly human shape, save for the tail, the horns and the claws. A desire demon, clad in little more than jewellery. It smirked at the way Harmony had to avert her gaze.

"They've been telling us of their deepest longings," she purred.

Harmony just rolled her eyes. "You've been toying with them, you mean."

"I think you'd find their thoughts very interesting. One of them would protect you with their dying breath. One has a conscience fraught with guilt over a secret kept from you. The third resents you, deep down."

More bait. Harmony didn't rise to it. "You said  _us_. Who is  _us_?"

"The Seer Callista, and the two of us."

"Two of what? Demons?"

"I'm Delight," the demon said, bowing her head. "You'll meet Vex later. When you do, you'll wish you stayed with me in our happy little dream," she said cryptically, and then she faded away. Harmony was left on her own.

She stood still for a moment, just trying to wrap her head around what had happened. Seeing Alistair again had felt so real for a moment. Her eyes welled with tears and she wrapped her arms around herself and shuddered.

Soon enough the moment had passed. There was nothing for it but to keep going, find her friends, find a way out, and get back to finding the real Alistair. The moment she had made the decision, her body changed back to normal, and she found she was dressed in her leather armour with her daggers at her back.

There was only one door in the room, and she pulled it open. She already knew what was on the other side.

The raw fade. It was a strange place, utterly foreign and hauntingly familiar all at once. Every inch of it spoke to her of memories that hovered just at the edge of recollection. Rocky islands floated through a brown and orange sky, chained together by eternity. The wind carried the whispers of spirits and demons, and the overwhelming feeling of being alone and adrift. And always hovering in the distance, always somewhere in sight was the ghostly silhouette of the Black City.

One thing Harmony had learned of the fade, was that it was best to keep moving forwards. It had a strange way of carrying you to exactly where you needed to be. Footsteps were strange here, where time and space seemed to ripple together. Sometimes a great bound didn't seem to move her anywhere at all, other times a small step seemed to carry her for leagues.

Soon enough she found herself in front of a portal, an arch made of stone. Within was a wall of crackling light, glowing purple, blue, pink and white. There was little point in worrying where it led, not when the fade wasn't presenting any other options. She took a deep breath and leapt in.

* * *

She landed in a Denerim alley. It wasn't one of the straight cobblestone streets that nobles rolled their carriages down. It was one of the dark, forgotten lanes where most of the windows were boarded up and nobody poked their head outside even if someone was dying on their doorstep. Now the whole street was littered with bodies, the dusty ground dyed red with blood.

Zevran was staring down at the body of a friend he had just murdered. Taliesen. A slit throat. A clean kill. His former life had clashed violently with his new one and forced him to make a choice he had hoped to avoid. His hands shook as he sheathed his daggers.

Harmony remembered being here. Battling through Taliesen's ambush had been brutal. Her face was caked with dirt and blood, her knees were skinned and her chin and left cheek both bloomed purple with bruises.

Oghren and Leliana were there too, just as blood-caked, just as battle-worn. Here in the fade though they were strange, silent versions. Less than ghosts.

"Zevran, this is just a memory," Harmony said, half stumbling to her friend's side.

Zevran's eyes shone with tears but he didn't let them fall. "Yes," he whispered. "A demon toys with us. This is the fade."

"You knew?" Actually they seemed to be at the whim of two demons, but Harmony didn't want to worry him with that news just yet.

"We've done this dance before," he shrugged. "The demon brings up this memory as if to stir anger that you had me kill Taliesen. As if you took my life as a Crow from me."

"Didn't I?" It was something they never talked about. She'd always wondered secretly if a part of Zevran had wanted to turn on her in that moment, to side with Taliesin and reclaim his old life. She'd always wondered if he'd held it against her that he'd been forced to kill his old friend.

Always wondered, never asked.

Delight said that one of her friends resented her deep down. It broke her heart to think it might be her assassin.

Zevran shook his head. "I think on this day as one of the best of my life. Do you remember what followed?"

Harmony smiled at him. There was such sincerity in his voice; she couldn't doubt that he meant those words. "We all stayed together, I wanted to make sure you understood that you had friends who would stand by you. We sat by the docks as the sun went down. Oghren found some Antivan brandy and we drank it together. You didn't say a word; I was so worried. But once the bottle was empty, you stood up, and you looked to me, and you said, 'Thank you.' Just that, nothing else. And then we all stumbled back to Arl Eamon's estate, and I knew that you would stay by my side for good or ill until I found the archdemon."

Zevran nodded, and his shape began to fade from view.

"No, don't leave me," she begged.

Too late. He was already gone.

She heard an angered growl then. It was a directionless sound that seemed to be all around her at once. In the corner of her eye she thought she could see a creature made of fire, but by the time she turned to face it, there was nothing there.

The fade portal reappeared in front of her. Harmony didn't waste a moment. She leapt through into the next memory.

* * *

She found herself at the beginning of the end. The eve of battle. The precipice.

Castle Redcliffe was packed to the rafters with the unlikely army assembled by the grey wardens. Everything they had been striving for had led them here. Everything would be decided, for good or ill, once the morning came.

But none of it mattered in the moment of this memory.

Harmony was alone in a draughty corridor, sitting on the floor in silence, shivering in her nightdress. Everyone was in bed. Nobody was supposed to be roaming the halls of the guest quarters. Nobody was supposed to see her there in the darkness beside the closed door of that guest bedroom.

Zevran swept past, a lone candlestick in his hand to guide him back to his room. He nearly walked right by, but her chattering teeth gave her away.

"I remember this too," he told her.

Harmony snorted and let her head rest against the wall behind her. "There were a lot more tears the first time." She couldn't help but feel angry that the demon had chosen to bring her here, to one of the worst memories of her life. Her anger was clearly what it wanted though, so she did what she could to keep it in check.

"I never knew why you were wandering around at this hour," she said to Zevran.

"I had just bedded one of the maids," he admitted with a shameless chuckle. Then his voice turned serious again. Harmony hated it when Zevran's voice turned serious. "I never asked you that question either," he said.

"You just sat with me." Harmony patted the cold stone floor beside her to beckon him over. He lowered himself beside her and put an arm around her shoulders, just as he had done eight years ago. The warmth of him beside her was enough to stop her shivering.

From somewhere behind the closed door, the heart-wrenching sound returned. A bed-frame creaking in a slow and steady rhythm; a familiar song to an elf raised in a brothel.

Zevran didn't ask her to explain why it was happening, just as he hadn't the first time. He raised the candle to his lips and blew it out. They sat together in the dark and never said a word.

"You were the only thing that stopped me falling to pieces that night," she admitted in a faint whisper.

"In truth, the demon shares this memory in another attempt to enrage me," Zevran replied. "Back then, I blew out the light so you couldn't see the anger on my face."

Harmony hadn't realised that. "You were angry?"

Zevran let out a long sigh before he tried to explain. "I was a scoundrel when you found me. An uncaring wretch. You helped me to become something more. Since I swore my oath of loyalty to you, it felt like you were mine to protect. Not in the way of a jealous lover or even a mother watching her cubs. It was something deeper than that for me. You were my light. You represented my chance of a new life, a good life."

Harmony let out a snort of laughter in spite of herself. "I thought you just didn't want to see the snot dripping down my face."

But Zevran wasn't laughing. "I would have killed him for you that night, had you asked it. If I had found you heartbroken the next morning, I probably would have killed him anyway. "

They both fell silent for a moment. In the background the creaking noise sped up and grew louder

"I told him to do it," Harmony confessed. "Morrigan said it would save our lives if he did. Losing him to the archdemon seemed like the worse fate."

She wished Zevran would say something, anything so that she wouldn't have to listen to that noise any more. But there was nothing left to say. They could only sit in silence as things in the bedroom behind them drew to their inevitable conclusion.

There were voices within the room. The sound was too muffled to make out the words, but the exchange sounded like brusque dismissal, curt and unfriendly.

"That was my cue to leave, if I'm not mistaken. I think this demon will part us now.  _Eroe mio_  - my hero, I know you will free us from this."

"You can free yourself, Zevran. You don't need me. Just remember that this is all a dream. And keep moving forwards. I'll see you again, I swear it."

Harmony felt Zevran press the candlestick into her hand, she felt him move away from her, vanishing into the corridor without a sound.

"Remember it isn't real," she called after him desperately.

That growling sound returned. Again she saw the creature of flame move somewhere at the edge of her vision. She sat still on the floor and didn't try to look at the rage demon this time. She didn't want to give it any satisfaction as it toyed with her.

"I know you're here. I know your name is Vex. Come and speak with me if you wish. It's rude to skulk around in the shadows," she said calmly, still sitting on the floor.

The creature emerged from inside the wall and towered over her, its mouth twisted into a smirk. The fire that made up its body lit up the pitch-black hallway. Harmony spared it an indifferent glance then began examining her fingernails as if they interested her more than a demon ever could.

"So what's the game here? You and your scantily clad friend want a different host in the waking world. Is that it?" Harmony asked, managing to look as if being imprisoned in the fade was nothing more than a tiresome inconvenience. She knew fear and panic and anger would only feed the creature.

"The Hero of Ferelden does not suffer abominations to live. It is you or us," Vex snarled.

Harmony rolled her eyes. "Come on. You couldn't have thought I was a threat. I didn't even know Callista was an abomination until you brought me here."

Vex's voice dropped to a low rumble. "You assume your presence here was our choice."

Harmony looked up at the demon. "Who else's choice would it be? Callista cut my hand and used blood magic to- Ohhh…" Suddenly the penny dropped. She hopped to her feet and her mouth spread into a wide grin. "Your seer wants rid of her passengers." Her hands moved to the hilts of her daggers.

Vex said nothing, just shrank back into the wall and left the Queen of Ferelden standing in the dark. It only served to confirm Harmony's theory. She'd been brought here to exorcise these two demons. Now she had no choice but to fight her way out. She'd have to be quick about it too; out in the waking world her body was no doubt being slowly drained of its life.

They were frightened of her though; that much was clear.  _Good,_  Harmony thought. They were right to be frightened. Now she just needed to find Nathaniel and Ser Ellin, confront these demons and break free.

The fade began to creak and shift around her. She could feel it rearranging itself in the darkness. Walls and ceilings were changing their shape, the floor became damp beneath her feet and there was suddenly the putrid stench of blood, musty urine and faeces. The smell alone made her realise where Vex had put her. Fort Drakon.

From the darkness, two hands thudded into her shoulders and pushed her off her feet. As she landed in a chair, the room came into view. Four stone walls lit by one inadequate lantern. Two guards loomed over her and she didn't meet their gaze. A third guard tied her hands behind her back.

"She's all yours, Ser," one voice said with a sly chuckle.

Two hands held her steady in the chair and a fist pounded into her cheek.

This was a memory too. Everything happening now had unfolded this way in the waking world. During her brief stay at Fort Drakon she'd been pulled into an interrogation chamber several times a day. They'd beaten her and humiliated her. She'd never found out if it was for their own amusement or because Loghain had wanted her to suffer for killing Arl Rendon Howe.

Her own glibness had carried her through it, but it hadn't been easy. She grinned through the pain and spat on the ground. Her body was trembling from the impact of the first blow, but it was the best she could manage.

"This really isn't much of an interrogation. Aren't you-" A backhanded smack across the face interrupted Harmony's sentence. Her lip split open that time and the taste of blood dripped into her mouth. "Aren't you supposed to ask me a question?"

A hand grabbed yanked down on her hair and forced her to look up at the face of her tormentor. "This will go easier if you just take your lumps quietly like a good girl," she was told.

Harmony's eyes widened with shock, she couldn't quite believe who was speaking to her. In the years since the blight, the faces in this room had become blurred in her memories. Now though, she could see one of them very clearly, and she knew without a doubt that this was a true memory and no trick of the fade.

"Ser Ellin…"


	10. Waking Up

"Ser Ellin..." the name escaped Harmony's lips, a quiver in her voice betraying her feelings.

Ellin had served Loghain before the Battle of Denerim, they'd always known this. Lots of Loghain's men had ended up serving the royal couple instead after the blight was done. Most of them hadn't been guilty of anything more than following orders. But by the time the woman had been appointed the Queen's bodyguard, Harmony had forgotten the faces of those that had beaten her bloody.

"Where did you get my name?" Ellin seethed, leaning in so close that Harmony felt spit hit her cheek. The woman yanked down on Harmony's hair so hard it felt like it was about to rip from her scalp.

"A little birdie told me," Harmony grunted, somehow managing to re-summon her veneer of indifference. Ellin rewarded her with a punch to the face and Harmony felt something crunch in her jaw.

One of the guardswoman's colleagues rushed forward to examine the damage. "You went a bit far with that one didn't you?"

Ellin just shrugged and turned away. "Get the healer in then, if you must." The other guard nodded and left the room.

Blood welled in Harmony's mouth and she spat it to the ground. "You know this isn't real, right, Ellin? You know you're not this person anymore."

Clearly angered by Harmony using her name a second time, Ellin spun around and marched back towards her, gauntleted arm swinging back ready to strike again. Harmony flinched, ready for the pain to come. If only her hands weren't tied behind her back, she could defend herself; maybe even beat some sense into her bodyguard.

Then, in that split-second she remembered where she was. She remembered her first time being trapped in the Fade by a demon and the different shapes she'd managed to adopt in order to adapt to her surroundings and find her way out of sloth's web. The rules weren't the same here in the fade. If she didn't want her hands to be bound then they didn't have to be.

The rope seemed to melt off her wrists and she swung her arms up just in time to catch Ellin's next blow before it hit her. Stunned for a moment, Ellin faltered, her mouth gaping open. Harmony took her chance and threw herself at the woman, the full force of her weight causing them both to topple to the ground.

"Think. Think hard. I know you're smarter than this," Harmony growled.

Pinned beneath her, Ellin struggled and tried to roll free. "Enjoy this while it lasts, cur. Loghain will see you hanged."

"Loghain died seven years ago. You are Ser Ellin, my bodyguard. You're a loyal friend and my most trusted protector," Harmony insisted fiercely, thumping her fist against the woman's shoulder.

Ellin frowned in confusion but stopped fighting back.

"I am your queen and your friend. You've saved my life more times than I can count. I know you haven't forgotten."

The woman's face softened. The armor marked with Loghain's sigil melted away, leaving Harmony lying atop a woman in plain clothes. Ellin never looked quite as big as she ought to in plain clothes.

"My Queen." Ellin closed her eyes and a tear escaped down her cheek.

Harmony rolled up to her feet and held a hand out to her bodyguard. "Your friend."

It wasn't necessary for the demon of rage known as Vex to show himself to let his anger be known. His anger rippled through the Fade. It was there in the atmosphere, a howl carried on the wind. Yet it was no more a threat than a stiff breeze. Harmony felt no reason to fear him. Not since realising that he was afraid of what she could do.

It didn't take long for she and Ellin to find a portal and leap through to somewhere different entirely. They were in what looked like a fishing village. Boats bobbed across the water and floated in the air in that way that seemed completely normal until one realised they were dreaming. The houses huddled together amidst olive trees and juniper bushes on a cliff overlooking the water, their brightly painted walls and arched doorways spoke of somewhere far from Ferelden.

"I don't recognise this place. Is it somewhere you remember?" Ellin asked, glancing about at the unfamiliar surroundings.

"It looks a damn sight more Antivan than anywhere I remember," was Harmony's reply as she marched purposefully ahead. She was rapidly losing patience for the fade and its demons, and was ready for an end to these games.

Ellin paused to frown as a school of fish floated through the air right past her head, then hurried to catch up. "You think this is where we'll find Zevran?"

"No, I think this is where we'll find…" she paused as the man whose name was supposed to end that sentence came into view. He was sitting on a jetty with his back to them, a pretty girl at his side and a fishing rod in his hands. "…Sol."

"You," Ellin fumed. Clearly she blamed their current predicament on the man who had led them to the seer's cave. The fact that he was trapped here too had led Harmony to a different conclusion.

Sol glanced over his shoulder, but the face that regarded Ellin and Harmony was younger than the man they knew, less worn around the eyes. He frowned in confusion, not seeming to recognise them at all.

"Friend of yours?" Harmony asked, nodding to the woman beside him.

"My wife." With a smile far warmer than any Harmony had seen him wear before, Sol put an arm around the woman at his side. "Ah, forgive me," he said, turning his focus back to Harmony and Ellin. "Have we met? I usually am good with names and faces, but it seems yours escape me at this time."

"Of course you know us," Ellin snapped, "It's your fault we're stuck here."

Sol's brows rose, then he looked to the scenery around them. "Surely there are much worse places to find oneself than beside the golden sands of Treviso?" Wordlessly, the woman beside him put a hand on his knee and gave him a loving smile. "Forgive me, I promised my lady that I would share the whole afternoon with her. I spend... far too much time away with my work, so this much I owe her. Yes, mi amor?"

The woman smiled and pressed a kiss to his cheek in response.

Harmony let out an exhausted sigh. "No. Sorry, Sol. We don't have time for this." Striding forwards, the planted her foot in the woman's back and kicked Sol's 'wife' from the jetty into the water below.

For the briefest moment when she hit the water, her skin flashed purple; a glimpse of the desire demon's true form.

Sol was on his feet in an instant, and the fishing rod in his hand became a sword, which he pressed to Harmony's throat. He didn't seem to find that strange. "Care to explain yourself before I claim your head, wench?" he seethed.

Harmony didn't flinch, though in the corner of her eye she could see Ellin's hands curl into fists. "Where were you, right before you came here, Sol?" she asked him calmly.

"A strange question," his brow furrowed, but he didn't lower his blade. "I was... That is..."

"You were with my friends and I, in the cave where the seer lives," Harmony reminded him.

The truth of it seemed to register with the man, and his mouth gaped open for a brief moment. "I..."

"Do you even have a wife?" she asked, before he could begin to doubt her words.

"Of course I have a..." He paused, and she recognised in his eyes the pain of realising the truth. "Had a wife..." The blade moved away from her throat.

"I'm sorry," Harmony said softly.

"She died in my arms," he said in a quiet voice. "That's not something you just forget."

Behind him, Delight, the desire demon, floated back onto the jetty in her true form, almost naked aside from a few well-placed jewels. As she set foot on the wooden planks, she changed back into the shape of the man's dead wife. Every muscle in Harmony's body tensed as if her entire being were crying out for a fight, but she didn't attack the thing. Not yet, anyway.

"I'm going to get us out of here," Harmony insisted. "Are you with us, Sol?"

The Antivan glanced over his shoulder, the pain in his expression as he saw his lost spouse was achingly familiar to Harmony. "I don't know," he admitted.

"If you choose to remain in the fade, your body will waste away out there in the real world. If you want to live, your only chance is to come with us." Perhaps not as impassioned a plea as she would have given someone who hadn't been sent to hunt Zevran, but it was Harmony's nature to want to save everyone, even Sol.

"I…" He swallowed harshly. "I don't wish to be parted from her a second time."

Sensing an advantage to be pressed, the desire demon draped her arm over the man's shoulder. Sol sagged against the vision from his memories, looking just about ready to melt into the embrace.

Harmony let out a frustrated sigh. "Every second we're in here, our bodies are losing time. I refuse to die with my quest unfinished and I don't have the time to convince the assassin who tried to kill Zevran not to throw his life away. Die here or don't. That's up to you."

As Sol simply shook his head, the next portal appeared past where he stood on the jetty.

"You're a fool," Ellin grunted, her sights already set on that portal. "I took you for a man who put his country before his own selfish fancies."

"Lose the one you love and tell me you wouldn't give anything to be reunited with them." He nodded to Harmony. "The Queen of Hearts knows this. Why else did she travel half of Thedas in search of her King?"

"I didn't settle for an imitation. Neither should you," Harmony argued, giving the Antivan one last pointed look before tugging Ellin towards the portal and hoping for Sol's sake he'd have the sense to follow them through.

When Harmony found herself on the other side with only Ser Ellin beside her, she let out a sigh, but didn't dwell on the matter. She had to focus now on rescuing those who actually wanted to be saved.

The fade portal had brought them before the familiar silhouette of battlements and stone towers stretching up into the sky.

"Does this look like Vigil's Keep to you?" Ellin asked as they passed under its outer gates.

Harmony shrugged. "It looks like the closest thing to the Vigil a demon could manage to copy."

"That's promising, right? Nathaniel's probably in the keep somewhere," her bodyguard surmised.

Through every step she'd taken in the fade, Harmony had mulled over the things the desire demon had said of her companions. One of them would protect you with their dying breath. One has a conscience fraught with guilt over a secret kept from you. The third resents you, deep down.

She knew now that it was Zevran who would protect her with his dying breath. He'd almost said as much before Vex had separated them. Clearly the secret kept from her and the conscience fraught with guilt belonged to Ellin for her part working for Loghain during the blight. That left Nathaniel who still resented her, and there was only one place she would find him.

Ellin started to march toward the entrance to the keep, but Harmony grabbed her by the arm and steered her to a different building. "He's not in the keep," she said flatly.

The bodyguard's brow knit into a frown. "Where would he be if not in the keep?"

"He's in the jail," she answered flatly.

"Why would he be in the jail?"

Harmony sighed and came to a halt outside the entrance to the jail. "Because he's been there for seven years."

Harmony pushed open the door to the place where she'd met Nathaniel for the first time following his father's death. On the day he'd tried to claim her life. On the day she'd claimed his for the wardens.

She had expected that small jail with that one holding cell that sat within the Vigil's grounds, but of course things were never quite as one expected them within the fade. Still, the surprise of finding herself in an entirely different place made her eyebrows rise, and a familiar dread sink to the bottom of her stomach. Because now she found herself in a dungeon, one that she had hoped never to see again; the one in the Arl of Denerim's palace. And when she glanced over her shoulder, Ser Ellin was not behind her.

Ahead, she didn't see Nathaniel as she had expected, but a familiar group of adventurers on their way inside. Namely Morrigan, Zevran, Sten and... she squinted at the woman leading them, and it took a moment for her to recognise her younger self, a fierce expression fixed upon her face.

"Kadan," Sten said softly. "I know your fury is not without reason, but those guards-"

"-Are Howe's men, the same who slaughtered my family!" she heard herself snap as she marched on in, tears shining in her eyes.

Harmony – the real one - blinked. Usually when she thought back on that day she could remember very little, small snippets of details and the rest a blur. Seeing it again made her remember. Anger had taken over that day. An anger unlike anything she'd ever felt before or since. Where she should have used stealth and cunning to make her way to Howe, she used rage and merciless slaughter.

Cautiously she followed along beside the vision of her past, though it soon became apparent that the other Harmony wasn't aware of her. The woman butchered her way past more of the guards, splattered with blood from head to toe, red dripping from her hands and blades.

It was difficult for the real Harmony to see the looks exchanged between Sten and Zevran... even Morrigan. She remembered choosing those companions on purpose, making sure Leliana, Wynne and even Alistair were left behind. She remembered telling Alistair that being caught might damage his chances in the Landsmeet. She had only said that because she couldn't bear the thought of him seeing her bring her vengeance to bear. All of her mercy and compassion had been left at the door of the palace, and she had arrived with nothing in mind but retribution.

"This is how it happened then? This is how my father died?" the sound of Nathaniel's voice over her shoulder made her jump. When she turned to face him, his expression was grim; lips pressed into a thin line.

"His betrayal, losing my parents like that. I..." Harmony sighed and shook her head. "I wasn't any better than him on that day. Seeing myself like that shames me. But I still believe he had to die. I'm sorry, Nathaniel."

"They're moving on," Nathaniel said in an emotionless voice, nodding to where the younger Harmony and her companions were disappearing around a corner of the stone corridor.

"A demon of rage brought you here, Nathaniel. He feeds on your anger. You don't have to give him what he wants." She settled a hand on his shoulder. "You don't have to watch this."

The man looked at her with cold eyes. For a moment he said nothing, but she thought she could hear the faintest whisper on the wind, as if some disembodied voice were feeding bitter words to her friend. When it fell silent again, Nathaniel said, "Caring words, Hero. But they only serve to make me wonder what it is you don't want me to see." At that, he shrugged her hand away and moved to follow.

Harmony closed her eyes, took a deep breath, and followed too. The hazy nature of the fade made it take fewer footsteps than it should have done, and it was a mere few seconds before she was standing once again in that room where, to her shame, she had exacted revenge.

She still felt it, that chill in her bones as she looked upon the face of the man who slaughtered her parents. She still felt sickened by the thought that her family had called him friend right up until the day he betrayed them.

"Well, look here. Bryce Cousland's little spitfire, all grown up and still playing the man. I thought Loghain made it clear that your pathetic family is gone and forgotten." Such venom in the words he spoke and the way he glared at the young woman before him. Even now Harmony wasn't sure what she'd done to deserve such scorn.

Instead of looking at the face of the man who had torn her world apart, Harmony kept her gaze fixed on Nathaniel, trying gauge his reaction to the scene unfolding before them. His face softened as he stared at his dead father, and he slowly stepped forwards, aware that his presence would not interfere with the scene unfolding before them.

"You won't forget. Their memory drove me to you," the younger Harmony seethed, the slightest quiver in her voice, hands clenched at her sides and visibly shaking.

"Your parents died on their knees, your brother's corpse rots in Ostagar, and his brat was burned on a scrap heap along with his Antivan whore of a wife. And what's left? A fool husk of a daughter likely to end her days under a rock in the Deep Roads. Even the Wardens are gone. You're the last of nothing. This is pointless. You've lost."

"Were you really so bitter?" Nathaniel asked his father, though of course there was no reaction from the late Arl.

"After this, I'll kill your wife and children, too."

The real Harmony cringed as she heard her ghost say that.

Arl Howe grinned. "Isn't that precious. Is this where I lament the monster I helped create? You're still so very new to this. Shall I show you how it's done? I made your mother kiss my feet as she died. It was the last thing your father saw. Meet my sword and try to change that!"

Only this time, it wasn't Harmony who met his sword, but Nathaniel.

His eyes burned with fury as he ran in, a sword appearing in his hands from thin air. His anger was so strong that it forced the ghost of Rendon Howe to acknowledge him, and the resounding clang of steel echoed in the room as his father blocked the blow.

"How did you get so broken that you were driven to this? Why did you have to drag the rest of us down with you?" He seethed as he continued to attack, blow after furious blow with no pause even to breathe. "What Harmony did to you was better than you deserved."

The blade found Rendon Howe's chest and put an end to the vision of him right there. He crumpled to the floor, clutching his wound.

For a moment the room was silent aside from Nathaniel's heavy panting as he lowered his blade. Harmony settled a hand on his shoulder, knowing the action would bring far more comfort than any words. She could see in his eyes that he was feeling just the way she had once felt. That ending the man had done nothing to ease the pain. The visions of her younger self and her companions had faded now, leaving only two of them to stand over the dying traitor.

"Maker spit on you, I deserved more…" Rendon Howe rasped just as bitterly as Harmony remembered.

Laughter followed the familiar words, but it wasn't Rendon Howe's. It was the sound a rage demon made as it delighted in having found a way to push someone into loosing their fury. Flames appeared around the man Nathaniel had once called father, and the human appearance melted away to reveal the creature of fire and anger. Vex.

"Such delicious ire," his deep voice growled. "It strengthens me."

"Bring out the other demon. Attack me together. Let's finish this now." Harmony snapped. Nathaniel's bow appeared in his hand and he trained it on Vex as she continued, "I'm done with your games. You only play them because you know that you'll lose if you fight fairly."

"Not much incentive to fight fairly," Alistair's voice suddenly purred in her ear. The familiarity made her ache, of course, but she wasn't fooled for a moment. Delight, the demon of desire, had appeared beside her.

Without blinking, without sparing a moment's thought, Harmony's dagger found the hollow of its throat - of Alistair's throat - and struck without mercy. In a flash his skin turned purple, and he dissolved away into the desire demon's true form. "You didn't think I would strike you while you looked like him, but you underestimated me. The real Alistair needs my help. You are in my way, and you're far from convincing."

Harmony pulled her blade free and Delight let out a choked, gurgling noise and then her head tilted right back as she sank to the ground, dead.

Not pausing for a breath, Harmony turned to point her daggers at the Rage demon.

Vex burned white hot for a moment, and then his colour died back down to a more muted shade of orange. "You should not be hasty. I can help you reach your King," he growled.

"You will return my friends to me. Now," Harmony said in that voice nobody liked to argue with, not even a demon.

"As you say," he answered. In a flash, Zevran and Ellin appeared at different sides of the room. Even Sol appeared. Delight was dead now, after all, and there was no ghost of his wife to cling to without her.

Harmony's eyes narrowed at the rage demon. "You don't have anything else I want, creature."

"But you can bring about something that many of my kind want."

Her gut told her she should just kill him; that it was pointless to speak with demons. Yet somehow she couldn't help but ask, "And what is that?"

"The death of Aurelian Titus."

That made her pause. The man she was chasing. The man who was hunting her husband. And apparently there were demons calling for his death as well. "Why would a demon care about something so trivial as the death of a human?"

"Because this human enslaves our kind to serve his own whims." Vex's growl following those words made it clear that the thought was troubling. "Callista brought you into our realm because she wanted to be rid of us. I do not wish you dead, I simply do not wish to die. Allow me to live on in Callista and I will lead you to the one you seek."

"Callista brought me here to save her."

"She gave you no choice in the matter. I am giving you a choice. I merged with Callista at her behest, and my presence here would be fact even had you never met her. You are failing no one by leaving me alive, but if you stay trapped in here, you will never find your husband."

Briefly Harmony locked eyes with Ser Ellin, Nathaniel and Zevran in turn. She already knew their opinions without having to ask, just as she already knew what Alistair would think. It didn't really matter. Coming to Callista had been an act of desperation, of grasping for anything that might show her the way when she had no other leads. Even a deal with a demon was better than being stuck in Rivain with no clue where to find Alistair… Even if Alistair would never forgive her for it.

"You have my word. Send us back, I won't kill you today, " she answered.

Vex seemed to grin. Not a pretty expression. "When you wake, I will lead you to Titus."

The next thing she knew, Harmony's eyes opened to a dank cave lit with the soft glow of the candles that lined its walls. Free at last...

Someone was standing over her. Elven ears came into focus, blond hair and a tattoo across the cheek.

"Rise and shine, my friend. Perhaps you'll recall we have a King to rescue, si?"


	11. Dreadnought

The first thing Harmony did when she woke up was make her way out of the cave. Yes, there were decisions to make. Yes, they needed to make sure Vex held up his end of the bargain. Harmony couldn't worry about that just then; she needed fresh air. She needed to feel real sunlight on her skin, real wind in her hair. She needed to know this was real.

What she didn't need, was to see the ship that had brought them here disappearing into the horizon.

She hadn't realised Ser Ellin had followed her out of the cave until she heard a voice over her shoulder exclaim, "Oh,  _Maker's balls_..."

Harmony was too tired to be shocked to hear her bodyguard swear for the first time. "Sol! Get out here," she bellowed into the cave, hearing the sound bounce from wall to wall after she'd made it.

In a moment, Zevran, Nathaniel and Sol had joined the ladies outside where the longboat was tied up. The fact that Sol seemed unconcerned about his ship's departure told her that it had all been a part of the man's plan - and Sol was certainly the sort of man to always have a plan.

"I promised I would bring you to the seer and I did. I said nothing about bringing you back again," he said, a charming smile on his lips that Harmony knew better than to trust.

"And which part of stranding yourself here with an angered Hero of Ferelden seemed like a smart move to you?" Nathaniel scoffed.

Sol raised an eyebrow. "Stranded? Just how do you think the Seer survives here if there's no way out of that cave, hmm? This is where she conducts her business, not where she lives."

Harmony frowned. "It's still odd that you elected to stay with us."

"Not really," Zevran interjected. "It is quite simple really. He doesn't want to lose track of me."

Suddenly Sol was shoved back against the rocky cliff, with little regard for whether or not the jagged rocks were hurting him, one of Harmony's blades rested against the hollow of his throat, but she didn't kill him. He must have expected that she wouldn't, since his reactions were usually much too fast for her to be able to pin him so easily.

"Is that your game then? Follow us until this business is done and then make your move for Zevran? You have to know I'm not going to give him up without a fight."

His mouth twitched. "And won't  _that_  be an interesting day, Queen of Hearts?"

Harmony's eyes narrowed. "Very well then, since you're already committed to this, let's make a deal..."

"Now you're thinking like an Antivan," he murmured with a smirk.

"Give me your loyalty. For now, at least. Help me on my quest and I'll see that you don't get left behind or forgotten. We'll trust each other until King Alistair is safe, and then we'll settle the matter of the bounty on Zevran's head. Is that fair?"

He was silent for a moment as he pondered that. "It certainly keeps him in my sights." He glanced to Zevran, then his lip twitched and he offered his hand out to Harmony. "Very well, my Queen. I swear my oath of loyalty to you until your King is saved from whatever perils he faces. I am your man, without reservation, this I swear." He clasped a hand across his heart and sank into a little bow.

"All of this is strangely familiar," Zevran chuckled, oddly chipper despite the fact Harmony had done nothing yet to save him from the man who wanted to claim his head.

"Your Majesty, wouldn't you rather I just chained him up and dragged him along with us?" Ellin sighed.

Zevran grinned widely. "Now  _that_  is my kind of party," he laughed.

Still not feeling her best after their expulsion from the fade, Harmony pinched the bridge of her nose. "Ser Ellin, we do it my way for now. Antivans, stop talking please. Everyone, back in the cave, we have an abomination to talk to."

Inside, Callista was sitting cross-legged on the cave floor, drawing some kind of glyph into the dirt with a stick. As the Queen of Ferelden and her party stepped back inside, the seer raised her head, looking older somehow and less human, though Harmony couldn't quite put her finger on what it was that made her seem different.

Unsure if it would be Callista herself or the rage demon, Vex, in control, Harmony said nothing, just came to a halt once her shadow crossed over the strange symbols on the ground.

"Harmony Queen," the seer said in quiet greeting, briefly glancing up through the curtain of dreadlocks. "I suppose I was wrong to force you into the fade. I never thought you the sort to make a deal with a demon."

Harmony arched an eyebrow. "My palm never told you that?"

Turning her attention back to drawing the shapes in the dirt, she "It told me you will do whatever you think necessary to achieve your goal. I thought that meant you would free yourself from the Fade no matter what, not that you would-"

"What? Betray you?" Harmony snapped. "You never asked for my help, you forced my friends and I into being trapped by demons. I did what I could to free myself, and now I'm doing what I can to find my husband." She paused for a breath, folding her arms across her chest. "Let me talk to Vex."

Suddenly Callista's voice was deep and rumbly, a slight glow of magic coming to her eyes. "I am in control now. I need not her permission."

The hint of fury in his voice made her shiver, but she didn't let it show. "Yes, yes. You're very angry and terrifying. Now… you said you'll lead us to him. So lead. Anything funny, my bodyguard snaps your host's neck. Sound like a plan?"

As if on cue, Ser Ellin stepped forward, idly cracking the joints in her knuckles. "Would you like  _this one_ chained up? Surely we can't trust her…  _him…_ it?"

"My dear, this is a  _most_ interesting new obsession of yours," Harmony heard Zevran chuckle from somewhere over her shoulder. In her peripheral vision she could see Ser Ellin blushing furiously, but didn't take her eyes off Vex.

"Chains aren't going to do much to this one," she pointed out. "Not normal ones, anyhow. We'll keep our blades at the ready and we'll be vigilant." Looking to the possessed seer, she adopted a more commanding tone, and said, "Gather what you need. We leave the moment you're ready."

* * *

The back of the cave led out to a sheltered village filled with round huts whose roofs were covered with palm leaves. There, they were able to trade for supplies - getting what they needed at a significant discount, since the revered seer was at their side. Everyone who saw her seemed to notice the change in her. They stilled for a moment as they sensed that something ineffable was amiss, but they were unable to do anything other than pretend all was normal.

As it turned out, the lack of Sol's ship didn't matter. Vex was certain that they needed to head for Rivain's north shore - a journey that would take weeks by sea, but only days on foot. He was silent thus far about what they would find when they got there, but Harmony had no choice but to trust that their goals were aligned for the moment. Even if Vex was lying about being an enemy of Aurelian Titus, even if he was leading them into some sort of trap, she had to at least figure that it would bring her closer to Alistair, and trust that she and her friends would be able to fight their way out of whatever trouble they found.

It took longer than Harmony would have liked to get moving. The seer was an integral part of the small village, and had duties to attend to before leaving it - weaving protection spells and doing what she could for the sick and the injured. By the time they set off in a canvas-roofed wagon drawn by two oxen, the sun was setting, turning the sky a deep orange the likes of which Harmony had never seen in the south.

The first of the evening stars were twinkling above them as they set out. Ser Ellin insisted on driving, with Zevran sitting beside her. His eyes never missed a thing, and Harmony trusted him to react at the first sign of trouble. Beneath the wagon's canvas roof, Callista seemed to sleep, or perhaps it was more accurate to say that Vex had let her body become dormant so that it would be fully rested for when he needed it. Either way, none of the others were ready to relax around her…  _it…_ yet. Sol sat across from the seer, sharpening his blade with a whetstone, barely taking his eyes off the abomination.

Perhaps Harmony didn't trust Sol yet, but she could at least trust that he shared the same instinct for self-preservation, and would holler if anything needed their immediate attention. As such, she sat on the back of the wagon with Nathaniel, watching Callista's village shrink into the distance behind them.

A person who had never been trapped in the fade might have found it strange to feel so tired having slept all day, but Harmony had been through this before; the first time in the Circle of Magi, and the second in the Black Marsh. Neither had been an experience she'd wanted to repeat, but just like those times, she'd made it through alive.

"Do you want to talk about it?" she asked her friend softly as it occurred to her that Nathaniel hadn't said much since they'd escaped the Fade. "It can't have been easy seeing your father's last moments."

He heaved a tired sigh. "It wasn't… but it helped, strangely. I feel even more foolish for what I said the day you recruited me, but… I don't think I can regret the path it put me on. The path  _you_ put me on."

"I'm so grateful you followed me. Even to the other side of Thedas." Her hand settled on his forearm and squeezed. "Even when…" She glanced over her shoulder to where Callista lay inside the wagon, letting the sentence die on her tongue.

"Even when you're not sure you're doing the right thing," he sighed, scratching the top of his head.

"You've been at this long enough, friend. You were there when we let the Architect live. It's not always as simple as finding the monsters and killing them."

Nathaniel nodded. "It's  _never_ as simple as that. Who knows if she'd have been able to help us if you'd freed her of both demons? Perhaps it wasn't the right choice, but it was the  _best_ choice. I'm through doubting you, Commander."

"I thought we were calling  _you_  that from now on?" she half-chuckled.

He shrugged. "Not until we're back in Ferelden. For now, I follow you. Until the end, wherever that may take us."

From somewhere, she wasn't sure how, she managed to find her smile. "Until the end," she repeated. There was something about Nathaniel's presence that she found so calming now, after all they'd been through. Never saying more than he needed to, never slapping a cheery face on and pretending everything was going to be fine, but always believing in her, in what she could do. She needed that, she realized now. More than ever, as lost as she had felt since leaving the Fade.

The ghost of a smile came to Nathaniel's lips. "You should get some sleep, Harmony."

* * *

" _You should get some sleep, Harmony…" Alistair urged, as he found her sitting on a rock at the edge of their camp, staring out to space, her arms wrapped around her waist as she gently rocked herself back and forth. For a moment he reached out to rub her back, then tentatively snatched it away again._

_It had been two nights since leaving the Circle of Magi, and Harmony had yet to get a full night of sleep. When she did drift off, it was involuntarily, her eyes closing without her consent. She would wake in a moment of panic shortly afterward, gasping for air and straining for a hold in the waking world. It was difficult to trust to sleep after all the sloth demon had shown them, after struggling so hard to escape, after seeing some of the mages remain trapped there forever._

" _I know," she sighed. "It's just…"_

_He puffed up his cheeks, then clasped his hands together, fingers twitching awkwardly. "Did the demon show you your parents?" he asked in a quiet voice._

" _No," she murmured. "I saw Duncan." That made Alistair's eyes widen, which in turn made Harmony cringe. "I had to kill him, I'm sorry."_

" _Heyyy, no, no, no. That's not your fault," he told her. "I know it was a demon, not really him. You did what you had to do."_

_She didn't know him well yet - an overheard rumour about the Circle of Magi had brought them there first after they'd left Lothering - barely a matter of weeks since they'd met. But already she was beginning to trust him, and she had certainly had time to figure out what Duncan had meant to him. "I think they knew the memory of my parents was too fresh, that I would see through it too easily. So it was Duncan instead, trying to convince me everything was all right." With a self-deprecating half-laugh, she added, "I suppose its sad that I couldn't fall for that lie, no matter how much I wanted it to be true._

_Alistair was silent for a moment after that. He sucked in an uneasy breath and didn't say a word, just sat down on the rock beside her._

" _Do you want to talk about Duncan?" she asked._

" _You don't have to do that. I know you didn't know him as long as I did," he answered, his gaze drifting up to a clear night sky. She easily recognized his expression as a brave face to cover a deep hurt. It was one she'd worn almost every day since losing her parents._

" _I just… thought you might want to talk…"_

_Alistair's expression softened. "Well if we aren't going to sleep, I suppose we might as well talk about something."_

" _We?" Harmony asked with a half-smile._

" _We Wardens have to stick together, right?" he answered, feigning a dramatic sigh as he put an arm around her shoulder._

_As Harmony sagged into him, he began to tell her about Duncan. How they'd met during a tourney held to honour the Grey Wardens, how Duncan had seen that Alistair was unhappy and recruited him in spite of the Grand Cleric's protests. How he hoped to hold a funeral for the man who had saved him from a life of mage wrangling and lyrium addiction once the blight was behind them._

_There was something about the sound of his voice that soothed her, that allowed her to relax enough that she could find her rest. Before long she'd fallen asleep against his shoulder, too far gone to even stir as he hefted her up in his arms and carried her back to her tent._

* * *

They rode through the night, taking turns to drive and keep watch, only dozing when time allowed. There was little Harmony could discern about the landscape around them, just shadows in the moonlight and the vague lines of the road. As hot as Rivain could become, she knew they would make better time riding through the night and the early morning, and stopping to rest the oxen during the day when the sun was at its highest.

By the time they did pull over to rest in the shade beneath a large enough tree, Harmony was too tired to notice much. Sandwiched safely between Ser Ellin and the wagon's inner wall, she managed to close her eyes and let herself sleep, for a while at least.

It wasn't until she woke that she was able to appreciate how very  _different_ to what she'd known back in Ferelden the landscape around them was. Outside Highever and Amaranthine, all was deep green and speckled with damp mud for as far as the eye could see. Here the world was orange and dusty, olive trees clinging together against the stark hillsides, their twisted branches reaching for the sky.

She and Ellin had pinned their hair up in simple buns, happy to keep it off their necks. In the sweltering heat she couldn't remember the last time her skin felt dry to the touch.

"Ah, you've caught the sun, my dear Warden," Zevran said, smirking as he moved to sit beside her on the back of the wagon. He tapped several different spots along the top of her cheekbone, then chuckled. "Freckles suit you." He offered out his hand, a small orange fruit in his palm that hadn't seemed to be there a moment ago. "Tangerine?"

"Where did you buy those?" she asked with a raised eyebrow.

He chuckled. "Here, my Warden, they just so happen to grow on trees. We might be wise to gather some olives before we go as well. I do not think whoever owns this land is near enough to chide us for it."

Harmony's ears picked up the clatter of hooves, implying that horses were approaching at a fair clip. "Sure about that?" she asked.

In silence, they watched as a group of people on horseback drove by, going faster than was truly wise if they didn't want their mounts to founder. Harmony's brow furrowed as she watched them disappear off into the distance. "Did they seem spooked to you?"

Zevran shrugged. "Perhaps. We are far from any town or city. I imagine there are all manner of things that could spook a person out here." With a nudge from his elbow, he added, "Hardly anything to worry the Hero of Ferelden, no? Now, this tangerine. Most people peel them and eat the segments, or quarter them and bite into the wedges. Back home we would cut a little hole in the top and simply…  _suck."_

Her eyes narrowed. "How did you make  _that_ sound dirty?"

"A natural gift," he laughed.

She couldn't help but give him a reluctant smile. "You're incorrigible. And awfully chipper considering a man who wants you dead is tagging along with us."

"When was the last time someone  _didn't_ want me dead? At least if I can see him, I know he's not sneaking up behind me."

Now Harmony laughed. "You have a point. Come on, we'd best get moving. There's only so much sunshine we Fereldans can cope with."

"Indeed. And your bodyguard, the lovely Ser Ellin, has a most distressing habit of smacking me about the head when I happen to mention that the sunburn on her cheeks is quite becoming."

"Shocking," Harmony said dryly, hopping down to the ground and beginning to walk around to the front of the wagon. "Let's give her a rest under the canopy a while then. I'll drive. You can keep watch."

"Watching over the backsides of oxen, lucky me," he answered with a wry smile.

As afternoon gave way to evening, several more people rushed by them on horseback, all of them seeming to be in some kind of panic but none stopping to tell the six travellers and their two oxen why.

"Fine, fine…" Zevran eventually conceded with a sigh. "There does seem to be some sort of a panic for some reason or another, but that doesn't me-"

Harmony didn't even seem to hear his  _but_ as she cut across him with, "We need to see what's wrong," and nudged the oxen into trotting along a bit faster.

By the time night fell there were clashes of light across the sky up ahead, almost like lightning striking except for the colours were wrong. After the people fleeing on horseback came the frightened families on foot clearly fleeing for their lives, carrying everything they could hold as they ran into the hills. Before long the coastline came into view, the sea a shimmering black that blended into the night sky.

From here they could see that the bursts of light were explosions. They lit up the scene before them in brief intervals, and from a hillside overlooking everything, Harmony saw a fishing village that clung to the coast, half burning to the ground as chaos burst through it. The whole settlement was dwarfed by the two ships that had come to moor. The smaller of the two, she could tell by the flags - illuminated by the burning masts - was a Tevinter warship. She could just about make out the sight of mages aboard frantically trying to douse the flames using magic. The other she could recognize simply by the blasts of thunder from the black tubes on its deck. It was a Qunari dreadnought.

The Tevinter ship was listing dramatically by this point. Harmony was fairly certain it was sinking, but that wasn't going to mark the end of the battle. Some of the crew had fled to shore only to be chased by the Qunari, and now their fight was raging through the streets of the Rivaini fishing village, tearing it apart without a care for those who called it home.

Ser Ellin appeared from behind the curtain that separated the back of the wagon from the cab. "Your Majesty, I don't think this is something we ought to involve ourselves with. Both oxmen and…  _free_ mages… are formidable enemies, and this hardly concerns us."

In the back of the wagon, Callista sat bolt upright, seeming to know in an instant what was happening. "This is where the demon sent you, Harmony Queen. Both of those ships patrol the waters of lands contested by their people, if your King and his pirate captain sailed this way, they will know about it."

With a nod, Harmony handed the reins to Zevran. "You and Nathaniel look after Callista and the wagon. Sol, Ellin, with me."

As she drew her daggers and moved to hop down from the wagon, Callista grasped her shoulder to stop her for a moment. "Don't forget to use your name, child. It carries weight even here."

Frowning slightly, Harmony pulled free and gave a curt nod, unsure what she should say in response to that.

"Your Majesty, I really feel I must-" Ser Ellin began.

Harmony instantly interrupted her bodyguard. "Complain if you must, just do it as we walk."

"What's the point in protesting that a course of action is a poor one if you are already taking it?"

The Queen of Ferelden simply shrugged. "It might make you feel better." At that, she ignored Ellin's weary sigh and began a fast stride down the hill to where the battle raged on.

"Why do I get to join you for all this, ah,  _fun?"_ Sol asked, perfectly cheery in spite of the fact he was following them into a burning village in the midst of battle.

"You chose to follow me. This is following me," Harmony answered, easily ducking out of the way as a nearby blast sent pieces of debris raining over them from the rooftops above. "You don't like it? Antiva's back that way, I believe," she added, gesturing behind them in a south-westerly direction.

Sol seemed more amused by that than anything else, his only response a smug smile tugging at his lips. Neither he nor Ellin complained further after that. On their way towards the commotion they helped to free some of the villagers from the rubble - even helped to rescue a young girl from a burning house. Anywhere they heard the words  _help_ being called, they followed.

They passed Tevinters and Qunari as well, though they all seemed too concerned fighting one another to bother with three humans who clearly were not aligned with either side. Harmony wasn't so headstrong that she was going to just barge into the fight, especially when she had no idea whose side she was on. For the moment, her mission was to stay out of the fighting and help the villagers as much as possible.

Which was a decent enough plan until they followed the sounds of screaming to a back alley, only to discover five villagers - two adult elves and three children - backed into a corner, trapped in place by three men in robes whose eyes were closed as they chanted some kind of spell.

Harmony barely had enough time to take all of that in before she saw one - the elven man - cry out in agony and double over, clutching his head. She saw a red magic surround him, feed on him, rendering him unable to move for several seconds before he burst in a sudden shower of crimson that covered the other captive elves even as they screamed for mercy. It wasn't the first time she'd seen a man's life sacrificed in the name of blood magic, but that didn't make it any easier to watch.

"Maker..." she heard Sol gasp under his breath.

Ellin said nothing, didn't even wait for her Queen's orders for the first time Harmony could remember since they'd left Ferelden. The battering ram of a woman charged in shield-first and bowled over the middle of the three mages.

Her target toppled to the ground, just as a second mage slammed his staff into the ground, sending out some sort of a magical shockwave that pushed Ellin over onto her backside.

Harmony didn't waste the chance. Ever the rogue, she struck just as that mage's focus was Ser Ellin. A dagger caught the man in the side, easily piercing his liver. Given that her blades were poisoned, she knew it would be a sure death without healing magic, and given that her second dagger followed through with a stab through his back that pierced his heart, she didn't imagine he was going to get the chance to cast any.

By this point Ellin was back on her feet and Sol was fighting too, doing what they could to keep the Tevinter mages occupied. Harmony took the chance to turn to the bloodied elves and say, "Make a run for it! Now!"

"You've made a grave mistake involving yourself in this matter," one of the Tevinters hissed, throwing out a blast of ice with a mere flick of his wrist, one that froze Sol in his tracks.

Harmony plucked one of the throwing knives from her belt and threw it, managing to impale the man's hand, breaking his concentration from whatever he was readying to cast next.

That was the moment Ellin cried out in pain, crumpling to her knees and grasping her head, a trickle of blood running down from her nose. Of the trio of mages, one had hung back, and now he was trying to drain Ellin's blood to augment his power.

"Oh no…" Harmony began to rush towards him, which was just the moment the mage with the knife in his hand chose to exact vengeance by magically plucking her up a few feet into the air and then slamming her back down, knocking the air from her lungs.

"Nothing personal," the mage told her, "I simply have no intention of dying to those horned bastards. Or to you."

She strained for breath, watching on in horror as Ellin sprawled out on the cobblestones, making a series of gut-wrenching gurgling noises and trying with everything she had to fight this fate. A red glow surrounded her, and Harmony had to force herself not to close her eyes in anticipation of an explosion of red.

Just as she thought Ellin was about to succumb to the blood magic, a broadsword found its way through the mage's chest from behind, and he crumpled to the ground, his spells fading with his life. His body hitting the floor revealed a fearsome horned warrior, who gave a grunt of approval at the kill.

The second mage followed a swift end as a second Qunari separated his head from his shoulders. He looked to Sol, Ellin and Harmony skeptically, then looked to the warrior at his side and muttered something in Qunlat. Something that ended in the word  _Karasten._

Even as Harmony tried to get to her feet, the name made her eyes widen. She quickly had to remind herself that she hadn't heard  _Sten,_ and even if she had, it wouldn't have meant  _her_ Sten.

The one who had been called Karasten let out a low growl, resting the hilt of his broadsword over one shoulder as he answered in the common tongue, presumably for their benefit. "Probably mercenaries working for the magisters, then betrayed for a blood sacrifice." It was clear from his tone that he disapproved. "The mages are all dealt with. Let us bring these ones to the Arishok and let him decide what will be done with them."

_The Arishok is here… The_ new  _Arishok…_ Harmony thought, remembering that she'd heard about who had been chosen after the last Arishok's death in Kirkwall.

Callista's cryptic clue about using her name suddenly made sense. Harmony scrambled to her feet, struggling to get herself into the most regal, commanding stance she could manage. She quickly adopted her best not-to-be-trifled-with voice and a stern glare. "I am no mercenary, nor would I ally with Tevinters. I am Harmony Cousland, Queen consort to King Alistair, Hero of Ferelden and Commander of the Grey in Amaranthine. I seek an audience with your Arishok."

As hard as Qunari were to read, it was impossible to tell whether the men in front of her believed it to be the truth, a bold lie or the words of a madwoman. All the same, the Karasten responded with, "You will come with us."

The three of them weren't chained, but the way the Qunari surrounded them on the walk towards the shore through the burning streets was one that gave the impression more of  _prisoner_ than of  _guest._

"I presume you have some sort of plan, Your Majesty?" Ser Ellin murmured close to Harmony's ear.

"Not a plan, so much as a potential ally," Harmony answered, giving a slight shrug. Up ahead of them the sea came into view and she saw the Tevinter ship completely on fire, its hull disappearing into the water below. Beside it the Qunari Dreadnought had taken on a slight list, clearly in need of some repairs before it was ready to leave the northern coast of Rivain. Up close she was struck by how  _huge_ the ship was. She'd heard stories of Qunari Dreadnoughts, how they spit thunder but were nigh unsinkable themselves. Seeing it in person was another matter entirely.

Ellin didn't seem very convinced. "What makes you think their Arishok's going to have any interest in helping you?"

Harmony smiled just slightly, keeping her eyes on the ship up ahead of them and hoping to catch a glimpse of their hornless leader standing on its deck. "Because before he was the Arishok, he helped me kill an archdemon."


	12. Kadan

Harmony, Sol and Ellin were rowed across to the Dreadnought and ushered into a cabin to wait until the Arishok and his men were done dealing with the injuries, the casualties and the captives left over from their battle with the Tevinter ship that had followed them into port. Before long, someone had been sent to fetch Zevran, Nathaniel and Callista, who were also brought to wait in that cabin.

It was a map room as best as Harmony could tell, though the charts were different to any she'd seen before, showing places much farther north than she'd seen appear on any map in Ferelden. She knew the scholars back home would have considered selling their souls for some of the information that had just been left lying around for any of them to look at, but she had far bigger concerns at present.

"This was all part of the plan then?" Harmony said quietly to Callista, blinking in confusion for a moment as she wondered whether she'd really caught sight of Nathaniel and Ellin briefly squeezing one another's hands or if she was simply tired and her eyes were playing tricks on her.

A slight glow of magic came to Calista's eyes. When she answered, it was with that deeper voice, the one with the strange echo that almost sounded human, but with a subtle difference that made Harmony's skin crawl. "You need eyes in the North. The Arishok can be that for you. That I saw him in your dreams was serendipitous."

Harmony nodded at that. "I'm here for information then."

"Not to interrupt when it sounds like the two of you have everything so well planned," Zevran's voice interjected, "but are we sure the Arishok will even be inclined to help us? We don't exactly have much to offer the grey skinned pointy-headed folk. And as far as I know, they are not exactly the charitable sort."

The corners of Harmony's mouth twitched up. "Maybe not after the way you used to make fun of his sword."

It was a rare treat to see Zevran surprised. "Do you mean to tell me..."

Harmony nodded.

A slow grin spread across the elf's face. "A king, a queen  _and_ an Arishok. It seems I have a knack for making friends in high places," the Antivan chuckled, exchanging a glance with Sol that she couldn't entirely read.

Before anyone else could say anything, the door opened, and several Qunari marched through it, moving to stand at arms, evenly dispersed throughout the room. The last of the Qunari to enter was someone Harmony and Zevran both recognized easily.

"Greetings, Kadan." The hornless giant looked just as she remembered. Just as soft-spoken, same unblinking gaze that suggested he noticed far more than he let on and was hard at work analyzing the situation.

" _Arishokost,_ " Harmony said in greeting, and bowed her head to keep him from seeing the smile on her face.

Sten - for he would always be her Sten, no matter what others called him now - nodded, seeming pleased with that. The man to Sten's right shifted uncomfortably, staring at Harmony and Ellin for a moment before muttering something in Qunlat. Whatever he was saying, he was cut off before he could finish saying it, silenced by a mere look from Sten.

"Your people are still confused to meet women who fight, then?" Harmony asked.

Sten didn't dignify that with an answer, having learned long ago that it was best not to goad Harmony into an impassioned debate. There were subjects on which the two of them would never agree, but for all that they were different, they had still become friends. She would always be Kadan to him. "His words do not matter. It is yours that interest me. Why are you so far to the north? Where is the rest of your party?"

"This is everyone." She gestured to each of her party in turn. "Zevran you know, of course."

"It has been a long time, my Qunari friend," Zevran offered with a polite little bow and a not so polite little smirk.

At Sten's curt nod, Harmony continued. "This is Nathaniel Howe." Sten opened his mouth to speak but Harmony answered the question before he could voice it, "Yes, he's related to Rendon Howe. His son in fact, and now an honoured Grey Warden. The formidable looking woman to my right here is my royal bodyguard, Ser Ellin. The other Antivan gentleman is Sol Castana, a bounty hunter of sorts for the Crows. And the Rivaini woman is Callista, a seer from Ayesleigh."

"A varied entourage." He didn't sound particularly approving. "But you are a leader among your people now, are you not? Surely those in Ferelden would not leave you so unguarded."

"They would if I didn't give them a say in the matter. Are you wondering why I'm here or have you figured it out already?"

His next sentence began with a disapproving growl. "You seek Alistair."

"I seek  _King_  Alistair, yes," she corrected, a smile widening across her face. She glanced back at Callista for a moment. "Someone told me you might have seen him."

"He was sighted in the company of a known enemy to the Qun. The pirate captain, Isabela. Her ship docked for supplies in Seere two weeks ago."

Harmony's eyebrows rose. It was the first time in weeks she'd heard news of Alistair. Her eyes were threatening to well up at the news they were on the right track once more, but she kept it under control for now, knowing full well that it would be a mistake to let their Qunari hosts see such emotion. "And you just let a known enemy leave?"

"The Qunari live peacefully alongside the natives of this land. Many willingly submit to the Qun because of the example they see our people set," was his answer.

She managed a wry smile as she untangled those words. "Ah. Attack a Rivaini Captain in Rivain and that spreads discord."

He gave a single nod. "After the death of my predecessor, it is wise to step carefully."

"You didn't even follow her?"

"Naturally, her ship was followed, though our dreadnought met an Imperial warship before it could catch up to her. You just witnessed the conclusion of that meeting."

"He's in Tevinter, then," she surmised.

"Yes," he answered. "Qarinus, to the best of our knowledge."

Harmony nodded. "Then that's where I need to go. Thank you for your help, old friend. It means a lot."

"You are wrong," he said. As Harmony lifted a questioning eyebrow, Sten spared a brief glance for her party, and then for his men. "If he is here in the north, it is because an enemy of the Qun planned to lure him into a trap." He looked to Callista in particular as he added, "There are some things I would prefer to discuss with you in private."

"All right then, let's-"

He held up a hand to interrupt her. "There are still matters to which I must attend. And you and your party have not slept. I will have you shown to your cabins. We will speak when all of us are well-rested."

It felt strange hearing Sten being the one to give the orders, as accustomed as she'd become to telling him what to do during the blight. "That would be best," she agreed, the corner of her mouth twitching as she caught sight of Nathaniel stifling a yawn. "My thanks, Arishok."

He answered that with a single nod, then muttered something to his men in Qunlat before turning to leave the room.

"Hospitable, that friend of yours," Sol chuckled.

Before anyone could say anything in response to that, one of Sten's men stepped forwards to address Harmony. "You will come with us."

"So it would seem," she said in response, following as he led them from the cabin.

They were given two rooms below deck; one for the men and one for the women. Harmony wasn't sure if she was more concerned that Zevran had to share with the man sent to claim the bounty on his head, or that she had to share with a seasick knight and an abomination. The cabins were only just barely large enough to hold the bunks within them, but considering those bunks were designed to hold Qunari sailors, that meant a lot more room than they'd been given on Sol Castana's ship.

Ellin immediately curled up on one of the lower bunks, groaning with her head in her hands as she tried to hold onto the contents of her stomach. Harmony sat down beside her and gently rubbed her back. "At least we're not moving y-"

Her sentence was interrupted as the ship began to lurch, and she recognized the telltale shifting of a ship whose anchor had been lifted from the water. Harmony sighed and closed her eyes.

"The Arishok will not keep you from your goal," Callista assured them as she perched on the lower bunk on the opposite side of the cabin, that low inhuman grumble in her voice that suggested the rage demon was the one in control at present.

"You're sure of that, are you?"

Callista nodded. "Magister Aurelian Titus is the one who seeks your husband. My enemy. Your enemy. Enemy of the Qun."

"Why accompany us? You already led us to our ally as you promised. Why not head back to your village?" The question  _why do I still need you?_ had occurred to Harmony, but she didn't voice it. All the same, having a rage demon in their midst didn't sit well with her. It was like leaving something breakable perched on the very edge of a table. An accident waiting to happen.

A  _disaster_ , if she wasn't careful.

"I wish to enjoy the chaos of this world. If all are enslaved to one man…" The abomination shook her head, her eyes beginning to faintly glow red. "You will meet more blood mages before long. There are ways I can yet help you against the spells they wield."

The red glow faded away and suddenly Callista blinked, not seeming to know where - or even who - she was for a moment. With a sigh, she lay down on her side and curled up in her bunk. "Be careful, Harmony Queen," she muttered miserably. "The worst is still ahead of us."

Harmony cringed, wishing there was something she could do for the seer. Already she regretted sparing the rage demon. Already she knew it was likely to come back to bite her later on. All the same, she couldn't think what could have been done differently. They were back on Alistair's path. They were heading in the right direction. It was far too late to go back now.

* * *

The sun was setting by the time someone was sent to their cabins to bring food, and to inform Harmony that the Arishok would meet with her. She found him on the ship's rear deck, staring out to sea, elbows resting on a railing that was as high as Harmony's chest.

"Where are we sailing?" she asked, stepping towards him on soft feet, curious to see if she could catch him off-guard.

The hornless giant didn't even blink. "Akhaaz. A fortress in Seheron." He paused, then sighed, and Harmony could tell he'd realized that there would be more questions if he didn't offer a bit more than that. "The Qunari recently drove out the Tevinter occupants. It is something of a base of operations at present. The closest stronghold to… well, we will get to that part."

He heaved a great sigh, then admitted, "I have missed you, kadan. Returning to Seheron was strange in many ways, after so long fighting at your side. It feels as though no time has passed, and as though a lifetime has passed."

Harmony smiled softly. "I know what you mean. Still… looks like you must've impressed a few people at least, defeating an archdemon and all."

He nodded, but said nothing more on the subject. "It was unwise of Alistair to come north. Aurelian would not have come to Ferelden looking for him."

"The thought that Maric might still be alive was too compelling to ignore. And there were mitigating circumstances," she explained, feeling a stab of grief return as her words forced her to think of what she and Alistair had lost. "Wise or no, he's here now, and I need to make sure he gets home."

"And what of Ferelden while you are both away from it?"

"It's in the best hands it can be in. I'm more worried about making sure it still has a King. After all we went through to see that Maric's heir - someone with Calenhad's blood in their veins - would wear the crown."

Sten settled a hand on her shoulder. It was a heavy thing, a great paw that seemed to engulf all of her shoulder and the top of her arm. "That blood is what Aurelian Titus wants from him. The blood of dragons."

That made Harmony frown. "Blood of dragons," she repeated. "What does that mean?"

He let out a disapproving grunt, then released her shoulder and let both hands fall to rest on the railing. As he stared out to sea, he said, "When I was in your land, I had the chance to read the legend of King Calendhad, as remembered by the people of Ferelden. A merchant's son who united a the Alamarri tribes to create the nation over which he would rule. A glorious tale, but very different to the one my people have."

Her frown deepened. "Wait... the Qunari have a tale of King Calendhad?"

"We know of Calenhad, the opportunistic dog handler who followed a witch of the wilds to a cave where a great dragon lay dying. At her behest, he slit the creature open and drank of its blood, using the power contained within to aid his rise to power. That blood continued throughout the Theirin line over the ages. It was in King Maric, in his son King Cailan, and his bastard, Alistair."

She didn't bother pointing out that in Ferelden it would be treason to call a crowned king of Ferelden a bastard, mostly because the story was surprising and she needed a moment to wrap her head around it. "Tell me, does Aurelian Titus believe your version?"

"I can think of no other reason why he would have an interest in the blood of your husband to achieve his purpose."

"What purpose might that be?"

Sten let out another disapproving growl. "He and his cult seek to restore the Imperium to its former glory, to reignite a spark that died long ago. It is not just the Qunari who would fall, but all of Thedas. Enslaved to blood magic. His exact plan, I do not know, but when a Magister seeks one man's blood, it is safe to assume he intends foul magic."

"You intend to stop him, then?"

The man tilted his head downward to meet her gaze. "As should you. Anyone who falls into that man's hands… I would consider death the kinder fate than whatever else he might do. Alistair can be foolish at times, but it is a warrior's heart that beats in his chest. That would not be a worthy fate for such a man."

"So take me to Qarinus. Let me find Alistair and help him kill Aurelian Titus. You said it yourself; I'd be saving more than just him. Your people are at stake, as are mine."

He shook his head. "I would never doubt your intentions or your ability after all we have accomplished, kadan, but I wonder if your worry clouds your judgement. You are chasing them - Alistair and Titus both. Would it not make more sense to preempt Alistair and place yourself in his path?"

She swallowed, almost not daring to ask her next question. "You know where Titus will be?"

Another nod. "Ath Velanis. His fortress on the coast of Seheron. All rumours of his dark deeds end there. If Maric yet lives, that is where Alistair will find him. That is where Titus will lure him."

Harmony heaved a tired sigh, and turned around to lean her shoulders against the railing that was too high for her to comfortably lean on. "If Alistair hadn't come north, if  _I'd_  never come north… What would you have done about Titus?"

"Hrr. We would have attacked. Brought the full weight of the Antaam to bear against him. Made him earn the victory he planned to steal with his sinister tricks."

_And if Maric is truly there, if he really is still alive… what would become of him?_ She didn't voice that question. The answer would depend on what state they found him in.  _King_ Maric, the man she remembered seeing as a child, the man her father had loved and respected… he would have proven his mettle against them easily. They would have seen him as  _basalit-an_ and delivered him back to his people. After so many years, though, being left to rot in a Crow prison, being in the hands of witches of the wilds and of Magisters… who was to say what sort of man he would be now?

_If he was alive,_ she reminded herself. It wasn't lost on her that if Titus sought Alistair's blood, perhaps it was a clue that Maric was dead. It was strange to think about. Everyone in Ferelden assumed the man had been lost at sea. There had never been any hope of finding him alive. The thought of him surviving, only to die alone to so far from home was… disquieting.

"Here is what I propose," she began, using her Warden Commander voice, the voice that had made Sten so willing to follow her eight years ago when she'd first rescued him from that cage in Lothering. "Let my group go ahead to Ath Velanis. Zevran, Nathaniel and I are ideally suited for that, and Callista will help us avoid whatever magical traps might be waiting."  _I hope._ "Let us find King Maric, if he's there, and bring him back to Ferelden. It's important to my people that he not be left to rot in Seheron." More importantly, it was why Alistair had come all this way.

Sten seemed unimpressed by that idea, but he didn't object. Yet. "And my people? What do you plan for us?"

"Find Isabela's ship. Get Alistair. Take him to Akhaaz or wherever you feel he'll be safe, just  _away_ from Titus." He opened his mouth to speak, but Harmony cut him off before he could begin. "He wants Alistair's blood. If you keep Alistair away from him, his plan is half-foiled already. Once he's secure, you bring your dreadnoughts to Ath Velanis and help me see that Titus and his cult are all put to rest."

He was quiet for a moment after that. "Your plan makes sense, kadan, but there is something you should know. That  _vashedan_ captain he sails with… A woman I believe you are acquainted with. Isabela. She is an enemy of the Qun. If she is taken into our custody, I cannot be responsible for what my people will do to her."

Harmony cringed inwardly. "She's to be executed, then?"

He shook his head . "What the Tamassrans have planned for her… You would consider it worse."

She swallowed back her doubts. She wouldn't wish that on someone she had once called a friend, however briefly they had known one another. But now there was too much at stake. Not just Alistair, or Maric, or the fate of Ferelden should it find itself without a king yet again, but all nations in Thedas. " _Meravas._ "

He seemed surprised by that, and subtly impressed, though she wasn't sure if it was because she'd remembered a few words in Qunlat or because he approved of her answer. "Then so shall it be."

_Sorry Isabela._ Harmony could only hope there would be fewer painful decisions once Alistair was safe.

On her way back to the cabin, she kept to the shadows as much as possible, hoping to keep out from underfoot of any Qunari warriors aboard. She knew she could trust  _her_ Sten, but she suspected that there were those who disapproved of her presence. It wouldn't be all that difficult for someone twice her size to throw her overboard and plead ignorance in the morning when she was nowhere to be found. She knew such a thing would be considered unworthy by the Qunari code, but she wasn't certain she wanted to risk it, and so out of habit, she stayed out of sight and observed.

That was when her ears caught Sol's voice nearby, and she slipped behind a wall of lashed together crates and peered out to see what was happening.

"Out here looking for your  _dear Grey Warden_ , whoreson?"

She saw Zevran leaning against one of the masts, twisting a small throwing knife between his fingers. He shrugged. "A force of habit. I swore an oath to her once. It is hard to ignore the urge to see that she does not meet a bloody end."

After all these years, Harmony knew Zevran well enough to recognize the difference between the voice he used when feigning calmness, and the voice he used when truly at ease. This was the former.

"That is why you came all this way, is it?"

"I can imagine why that would be so difficult to believe for one who still thinks like a Crow. A better reason than yours, but then, you came all this way for me, did you not?" Zevran grinned smugly. "I imagine I should be flattered. You  _are_  fairly easy on the eyes," he chuckled.

Harmony thought she saw a flash of anger in Sol's eyes. Her grip on her daggers tightened as she saw him step forward, grasp Zevran's chin with his hand and tilt the elf's head up so that their eyes met. "Perhaps I should have my way with your precious Queen. With you chained up and forced to watch. That would be fun, no?" he sneered.

"Your throat would be cut already if I thought for a second you meant that," Zevran growled.

The glimpse of anger made Sol smile, and abruptly he drew Zevran into a fierce kiss, backing him against the mast and gripping his pointed ears with both hands. The kiss ended with a bite to Zevran's lower lip, but he didn't have a chance to draw in a single breath before Zevran's closed fist connected with his jaw and knocked him back a couple of steps.

Harmony wasn't sure if she should walk away or keep watching. She couldn't quite tell if they were about to kill each other or if one was about to bend the other over the railing, and she didn't dare leave in case it was the former. She didn't like Zevran's chances alone against the Antivan Crows' secret weapon.

For a moment Sol simply clutched a hand to his cheek, which was already blooming red with the promise of a bruise. Zevran met his glare, breathing heavily and absently stretching out the fingers on the hand he'd used for the punch. Just as she thought one of them was about to kill the other, she saw Sol's lips curl into a smile.

Then, just as abruptly, Zevran laughed and shoved him back into the wall of the cabin and leaned up to begin another kiss. It was less aggressive than the one Sol had initiated, but by no means anything approaching tender.

One of the Qunari crew past them as the kiss continued, pausing only to give a grunt of disapproval before continuing about his duties. Neither Antivan seemed to notice.

A moment later, Zevran pulled back and growled, "This changes nothing between us."

"It better not! The moment this is over, I'm bringing you back to the guildmaster as ordered, whoreson," Sol seethed, then claimed another kiss.

Stunned, but content that neither one seemed about to kill the other, Harmony backed away slowly, surprised when she stepped into Ser Ellin, who had nothing to do but scoff, " _Antivans_. Should I invite Nathaniel to stay in the spare bunk in our cabin?"

Harmony nodded, still not quite able to look away until the two men disappeared behind the stairs to the foredeck. "That might be best..." she murmured.

* * *

Their journey across the Venefication Sea to the recently liberated fortress of Akhaaz took a matter of days, but to Harmony it felt like weeks. Knowing that she was finally going to get ahead of Alistair instead of following a rapidly cooling trail had truly relit the fire that had led her to leave Ferelden in the first place, but until they reached their destination, there was nothing for her to do but wait. In the weeks since leaving Ferelden she'd almost lost hope she would ever catch up to him, and now the end of their journey was in sight. Now there was a plan.

Akhaaz was a strange looking fortress. Even from the outside it was obvious that the place had been conquered and reconquered through the ages, falling in and out of Qunari hands so often that it had become a patchwork of Imperial and Qunari architecture. On the inside, it was even more obvious. Harmony's group were led - without a word of explanation from the Arishok or any of his men - to a building within its walls that appeared to be freshly built and was certainly Qunari in origin.

As they stepped inside, the many racks of weapons and armour quickly informed them where they were.  _Of course they'd rebuild this first,_ Harmony thought, lips curling in amusement.  _A Tevinter armoury wouldn't be up to their standards._

Each of them were kitted out with new weapons and equipment, as Harmony and the Arishok had agreed, then left alone with the woman who had taken them all the way from the southern coast to the northern one, and then beyond.

"You've all followed me this far," Harmony began. "Some of you have been here since the beginning, and some of you we've sort of picked up along the way. Either way, each of you is a long way from home, and I'm grateful that you would stay at my side, no matter your reason." She paused to look each of them in the eyes in turn, a small smile coming to her lips.

"Some of you have marched into battle at my side before, the rest of you have heard stories about those battles. Where I'm headed next... I don't know what will happen. This isn't as simple as storming in and killing the archdemon. Honestly, I don't know if it's a fight we can win. I don't even know if the man we're going in to rescue still lives. But I do know the Magister we're up against needs to be stopped, and I plan to stop him if I can. So now comes the part where I give you a choice. If this doesn't feel like your fight. If you don't think you're the right person to go up against a Magister. If you have family somewhere, and you don't want them to always wonder what became of you should we fail... If you want to stay behind for any reason, I will understand. I won't try to stop you. Thank you everyone, for helping me make it this far. It all ends at Ath Velanis, one way or another. If you don't want to be a part of that, speak now."

A long silence followed. She met Zevran's eyes and knew in an instant that he was with her until the end. She knew even before she looked to Nathaniel that he wasn't going to leave her, even though the words about family had been for his sake. In Ellin's eyes she saw a grim determination to redeem herself for what had been done during the blight, and to stand by the woman she now considered her friend as well as her charge. She let out a silent chuckle as she saw Sol exchange looks with Zevran - who almost seemed to be wordlessly daring the man to say yes. Sol rolled his eyes, then looked to Harmony and gave a conceding nod. Finally, Callista coughed, then offered a meek nod, seeming like she wanted to say no but wasn't permitted.

Harmony folded her arms across her chest and nodded. "If we survive this, Ferelden will owe each of you a debt."

Feeling there was little else to say, she made her way outside to where the Arishok waited, arms folded across his chest as he watched her approach.

"You are sure then, kadan?"

She nodded. "This is the best plan I can think of. Alistair will be safe and Titus will be stopped. That's the best we can hope for." Truly the best she could hope for was surviving the plan, reuniting with Alistair and making their way back to Ferelden, but for now beating Aurelian Titus was where her focus needed to be.

He gave what she thought might have been a grunt of approval, but she'd been apart from him for so long now it was harder to tell. "With anyone else I would call it a fool's errand, but I have seen you achieve the impossible in your homeland. I expect no less of you now."

That was all Harmony needed to hear. They were closer than ever now to finding the man she loved. Nothing was going to stand in her way.

* * *

**End of Part Two.**

 


	13. Foul Magic

If asked a few months ago where Harmony thought she'd be that day, just about the last place she could have answered was breaking into a Tevinter fortress on the island of Seheron alongside Qunari spies to look for a King of Ferelden thought long dead. Yet there she was. And she wasn't alone.

Her friends had braved the Deep Roads and the darkest swamps of Antiva, fought dragons and demons, faced their deepest fears and darker selves in the Fade and come out stronger. They had done it all for her, to give her this chance. She wasn't going to let those efforts be in vain.

"All right, then. Our mission is to learn as much as possible, and to get King Maric out of there. We still have a few days before the Arishok's forces arrive. The search starts now," she said as they made their way up a rather gloomy, rocky coast, keeping to the trees and the shadows as much as possible, hoping cover of night would hide the rest. "Let's go over tonight's plan one more time."

Nathaniel nodded. "Two teams. Mine and yours. Sol and Zevran are with me searching the upper levels for information. Callista and Ser Ellin will search the prison in the lower levels with you."

"I use my magic to keep our team hidden and get us past any wards," Callista chimed in.

"Whereas our team will rely on good old fashioned stealth, not to mention a few Crow tactics Nathaniel has been lucky enough to learn," Sol added.

"We infiltrate. We learn what we can about King Maric's whereabouts and Aurelian Titus' plans. Then we regroup at our camp to decide what to do next," Zevran said, that fiercely determined assassin expression replacing his usual smirk for the moment.

"Which hopefully involves killing that bastard, Titus, and bringing King Maric home to Ferelden," said Ser Ellin.

Giving a satisfied nod that everyone seemed to be on the same page, Harmony left her team and made her way over to where the two elven spies Sten had sent with them were waiting. They were both called Tallis, which made it difficult to specifically address either one, and neither seemed open to being given nicknames by a stranger. "We are ready to follow you," she told them.

They both kept their gazes fixed on the black water before the fortress, calmly awaiting the signal from their own people. "If you are caught, they will drain your body dry for their foul magic," one of them warned. "We have lost several people to that fate."

She shrugged, glancing over her shoulder to where Callista stood. "We brought foul magic of our own."

Whatever the spies' reaction to that, there was no chance to respond as a thunderous  _boom!_ echoed across the sky.

Qunari assaults on Ath Velanis were nothing out of the ordinary. For a few months now the Qunari had been sending in a dreadnought or two to take potshots at the outer walls. Not with enough force to pose a realistic threat, but Qunari thunder wasn't something anyone with ears could just ignore. And while the Vints were distracted by the thunder, the Ben-Hassrath moved their people into place to spy on the Magister.

It was usually a risky endeavour, given the magical wards that any Magister worth his salt would inevitably place around his stronghold. It put a chill in the bones to hear the Qunari describing how they would abandon any of their people caught by those traps. Thankfully today that wouldn't be necessary.

Callista went ahead of them, occasionally pausing to raise a hand and mutter under her breath. The effect of her efforts was not always immediately clear, but certainly none of the traps they'd been warned about seemed to activate as they made their way in through a long abandoned passageway that ran beneath the outer walls of the fortress.

Once inside, the two Tallis led them carefully in the direction of the basement, proving themselves to be more than capable at sneaking past the guards. At one particularly well-guarded door they even drugged one so that he would sleep for a short time and later awake with no memory of having ever been accosted.

_Sten… or Arishok or whoever… had better not send any of those to Denerim palace,_ Harmony thought as she watched them work, equal parts impressed and concerned by how skillful they were.

The now unguarded door opened to a flight of stairs that led down into darkness. One of the Qunari spies looked to Harmony, then nodded in that direction. "That is where they keep their prisoners. And as far as we are to escort you. Be careful as you leave. This guard will have woken by then."

"The Arishok told you to leave us at this door?" Harmony asked, rather surprised by that.

"Tallis are directed by the Ariqun," the Tallis corrected. That was confusing to Harmony, but since it was neither the time nor place to ask for an explanation, she thanked them for bringing them that far, and followed Callista down the staircase.

The dark didn't stay that way for long. Several torches fixed to the walls suddenly lit themselves, magically activated by their presence as they made their way downwards. As was often the case with dungeons, the walls and floors were damp and the dim light was a blessing, masking the dreadful conditions as it did. The faint squeaking of the rats and the pattering of their feet was always audible, and the air carried the unwelcome scents of blood, human excrement and death. Here though, there was something else… just a feeling really, something ineffable, perhaps something magical. Definitely something  _evil._  It made Harmony's gut scream at her to get out.

There were several long-forgotten storerooms filled with rotting barrels before they reached the rows of cells they'd expected to find. Half the cells were empty. The other half had bodies on the floor. Well, closer to skeletons really, since there was less skin than bone on most of them. They were sprawled out across the stone floor, stains of red spreading out beneath them, their faces - what was left of their faces - twisted into horrified expressions. Most were elves from what Harmony could tell, though it wasn't always clear. She couldn't recognize any as Maric, though plenty of them were beyond recognition as it was.

Beyond the cells was a larger room, more some sort of ritual chamber judging by the dragon statues and the red-stained stone table in the middle. There was a lone prisoner - a Qunari woman hanging from a pair of manacles attached to the wall, her legs just long enough that the tips of her toes touched the floor. It became certain almost immediately that if Maric was alive, he wasn't there.

The realization seemed to put Ser Ellin into a bit of a panic, as if she were suddenly terrified that they'd come all this way and risked so much only to find it had all been for nothing. "You!" she called, striding up to the Qunari woman. The poor soul looked almost drained dry. "Was there an elderly gentleman here? Fereldan. Answers to Maric?"

The woman tried to answer, but barely had the strength to open her mouth.

Callista placed a hand on Ellin's arm, then softly said, "Her tongue is cut out."

Harmony gave the Qunari woman a sympathetic look. She couldn't tell at a glance if the woman would be able to recover even if they could help her out, but she planned to try if she could. "We are working with your Arishok to bring down Titus once and for all," she said, hoping the words would be reassuring.

The prisoner's only response was a slow blink, her laboured breaths becoming calmer at the news.

Callista tilted her head to one side as if picking up a sound on the wind or as if someone invisible whispered something into her ear. "Someone arrives. A prisoner."

"Well this  _is_ a prison," Ellin pointed out dryly.

"Someone who helped your King on his journey," the Seer added.

_That_ caught Harmony's attention. "Then that's someone I'd very much like to speak with."

"Then we wait," Callista answered, pressing a finger to her lips. "We can watch from behind those statues. It you do not make a sound, my magic will keep us from being noticed."

"Are you sure you aren't trusting yourself to her magic too frequently, your Majesty? It would not be a picnic having to fight your way out of this dungeon," Ser Ellin said, folding her arms across her chest and fixing a stern glare on the mage beside her - and not for the first time that day.

Harmony managed a wan smile. "Why do you think I brought you, o bodyguard?"

Ser Ellin rolled her eyes at that, but Harmony could tell she was faintly amused. Rather than say anything further though, she followed Callista behind the statues, all the while trying to convince herself she didn't notice the rats taking flight as she moved there, or the thick, dusty cobwebs that clung to her legs.

They were barely settled before they heard the door clang open, and an entourage of guards arrived, dragging along a prisoner in chains.

It was a woman, pale and blond. Judging by her clothing, she was someone of import, or  _rich_  at the very least. She held her head high even as they dragged her in in chains. The guards quickly had her transferred to a pair of manacles and left to hang there with her feet just barely off the ground.

The servants and guards then quickly dispersed, giving way to a man dressed head to toe in black, with a gaunt face and dark hair and beard. "Still so quiet?" he asked the new prisoner.

The woman pointedly avoided his gaze. "I am a Magister of the Imperial Senate. I needn't waste my breath on those too terrified to do anything other than your bidding, Titus. Just as I needn't point out how many laws you've broken by bringing me here."

Harmony had to force herself not to gasp. Titus.  _Aurelian Titus_. This was their target, the man they'd come all this way to deal with. Briefly she wondered whether all of this would simply go away if she tried to murder the man right there in the dungeon, but quickly decided it wasn't worth the risk to act before the Arishok's forces arrived.

Titus smiled a sickly smile, clearly amused by the Magister woman's answer. "It is not fear that makes them do my bidding, my dear Maevaris, but faith. In the Old Gods. In me. In what Tevinter will become once I have reshaped it. It is their belief that shields them from fear."

Maevaris somehow managed to hold her head proudly in spite of what Harmony was certain must have been a painful position to be forced into. "And for those who do not… who  _cannot_ share that misguided belief?"

"Oh, I have ways of bending anyone to my will." He snapped his fingers, and one of the servants came running with a small vial of pink liquid, which Titus took. "Even you, Magister Tilani."

He lifted the vial to her mouth, but she turned her head away, lips clamped shut. What followed was excruciating to watch, as Titus attempted first to get Maevaris to open her mouth by pressing her nostrils shut. When that didn't work, he had one of his guards punch her in the stomach so hard that she was forced to unclench her jaw. The potion was poured down her mouth, and Titus covered her mouth and nose with his hands so that she had no choice but to let it trickle down her throat.

Harmony's hands curled into fists, but she forced herself to stay put. As much as she wanted to rescue Titus' prisoner, facing the man directly was too big a risk to take just yet.

Whatever the contents of the vial, Maevaris seemed weakened in an instant, her head lolling to one side and her eyes sagging half shut.

"We will speak further when you are feeling more pliable, Magister Tilani," Titus promised. "Perhaps we can start with why you would choose to stick your neck out for that doglord King, hmm? For now, it would be my pleasure to show you what I've been working on..." With a sly grin, his gaze drifted to the poor Qunari woman with no tongue, then he clicked his fingers. "Lower her."

The Qunari was so painfully thin by this point that it wasn't much trouble for the human guards to unchain her and lay her down on the stone table at the center of the room. Titus walked a slow circle around her, hands clasped behind his back, manner as relaxed as if he were taking a pleasant stroll through a garden.

One of the guards moved to Maevaris' side, forcing the woman's head up so that she had to watch as Titus began to speak in ancient Tevene, his hands beginning to glow red.

On the table, the Qunari woman began to convulse, blood dripping from her nostrils, then her mouth, her ears and eventually her eyes. There were shrieks of pain, but without her tongue she couldn't form the words to beg them to stop. The veins in her body grew fat, straining the skin until they burst, sending a shower of blood into the air. Titus' spell immediately brought each droplet of blood rushing towards him, aglow with magic as he absorbed them into himself.

Beside her, Ser Ellin gasped, and Harmony quickly clapped a hand to the woman's mouth to keep her silent. As the ritual continued, she felt her friend trembling in her grasp, felt hot tears landing on her hand. It was as painful to see Ellin in such a state as it was to watch what Titus was doing, but there was nothing she could do but close her eyes and wait for it to be over.

"Men like you are why the south loathes our people," she heard Maevaris managed to say once all had fallen silent. The Magister even managed a derisive snort, though her voice was still weak.

Titus just chuckled. "Soon they will fear us as they should. As they once did. Come with me, Magister, I have so much to show you. I doubt you've ever even seen a Magrallen in person. Few have." He snapped his fingers again and Maevaris was lowered from her manacles.

He waved his hand and a doorway appeared in the far wall, one that had been invisible before. Harmony quickly glanced to Callista - even she seemed surprised by its sudden appearance. Aurelian Titus strode through that door, followed closely by those guards as they dragged Maevaris along behind him.

Once they were gone, Harmony let go of Ellin, then rushed to pull her braid back as the woman fell forwards, her arms barely catching her weight as she vomited on the floor. They might have worried about it being noticed if the place wasn't coated in the grime of things far worse than that.

"Even at Ostagar… the battle of Denerim… at least the things we saw weren't done by humans. But this? Mages like that can't blame the blight. He  _chose_  this _._ Chose such needless...  _death_ ," Ellin breathed, trembling as she tried to find a way to cope with what they'd seen.

"I know," Harmony whispered in response, stroking her bodyguard's hair. It was strange and rather unsettling to be the one looking out for Ellin rather than the other way around, but then they were currently very far outside of anyone's comfort zone. The smell of the place alone would stay with Harmony for years, she could already tell. "That's why we're going to stop him."

Swallowing harshly, Ellin wiped her mouth then gave a conceding nod, just as Harmony drew her into a hug.

"We should leave and regroup with the others, while the enemy's attention is elsewhere," Callista pointed out, keeping her gaze fixed on the locked door.

Nodding, Harmony instantly launched into the first question on her mind. "What's a Magrallen? Do you know?"

Callista's answer came in a voice far more deep and rumbly than her own. The voice of the demon within. "Very old. Very powerful. Dating back to the time of Dreamers," Vex told them. "Legacy of the Imperium. Powered by blood."

The Queen's eyes narrowed. "Let me guess, some blood gives more power than others?" It would explain at least why this Magister wanted Alistair's blood, and Maric's.

The Seer answered with a nod. "It thirsts for the blood of dragons."

"What happens if we break the thing?" Ellin asked, frowning deeply.

That was answered with a laugh, both the seer's voice and the demon's at once. "Pray that those you love are far enough from it."

"Nothing good then," Harmony presumed. "Still, that's where we need to go, I think. If Titus is holding Maric, it won't be far from that... thing."

Callista nodded in agreement, already leading them back the way they'd entered. On the way out, the guard the Tallis had left unconscious was awake again, but a quick spell from Callista changed that and the three of them managed to escape Ath Velanis fortress without being seen.

* * *

After what they'd seen in that dungeon, Harmony couldn't help but draw Zevran and Nathaniel each into a tight squeeze of a hug one after the other as they returned to their camp along the coast to find that everyone had returned from the fortress safely.

"Tell us you found something," Nathaniel pleaded as he patted Harmony on the back before breaking off their hug.

"I think we did," she answered unsurely.

"I certainly saw more than I'd have liked," Ellin groaned.

The reminder made Harmony sigh as she fought hard not to picture that blood magic ritual again. Sleeping that night was going to be hard enough regardless. "There's a room in the dungeons. Hidden too well not to be of import. Oh, and he seems to have taken a Magister prisoner for helping Alistair." What they'd witnessed of Maevaris' treatment had been hard to see as well, but Harmony couldn't help but feel relieved to know there was a potential ally in that dungeon - and one that had seen Alistair recently, even.

"A promising lead," Sol chimed in. "We were not so lucky."

Zevran let out a frustrated sigh and kicked the ground. "No papers. No books. No records of his dealings with the Crows. The upper levels were empty."

"Too empty!" Sol added. "And believe me, we assassins are well trained to look for such things."

"At least you weren't caught," Harmony murmured.

Nathaniel gave a grateful nod in agreement. "What's next?"

"We know where we need to go. We've still got time until the Qunari forces arrive. The plan's no different than it was when we arrived. We get in. We find Maric. We get out."  _If we can_ , she added mentally, then admonished herself for the pessimism. Their progress that day had been slower than she might have preferred, but it was progress nonetheless.

Besides, their actions so far were all to ensure that Alistair stayed safe. Nothing was more important to Harmony than that.

* * *

King Alistair of Ferelden couldn't have possibly felt more useless in that moment. From the second the Qunari dreadnought had sailed into view, the switch had been flipped in his friend that changed her from Isabela to  _Captain_ Isabela, and now all he could do was stand back and watch as she rallied her men, ready to take on what was - from what he understood about Qunari dreadnoughts - most likely going to be a losing battle.

_Looks like disappearing at sea is getting to be a bit of a Theirin habit,_ he thought with a grimace.

All the same, Isabela wasn't going down without a fight. Alistair wasn't entirely sure of the woman's history with the oxmen, and when it came to her dwarven friend's tellings, it was hard to tell the exaggerations from the bold-faced lies. He assumed there was a grain of truth to the stories, but they were hard to pick out.

"What's in those bottles?" he asked Varric now. He and the dwarf had found a spot by the stairs to the upper deck where they could stand out of Isabela and the crew's way. They watched together as First Mate Brand had some men carry crates up from below deck, then started to hand out small flasks to each of the crew.

"Antivan fire," Varric answered, voice all low and serious. Alistair hadn't known Varric long, but he knew to worry if he heard  _that_ voice. "I've heard if you can land it close enough to the powder barrels on a Qunari ship…" he trailed off there.

Alistair raised an eyebrow. "What?"

"Short answer? Boom. Just don't ask me why. If there's one thing I learned from living in Kirkwall, it's to keep my nose  _out_ of Qunari secrets." Varric considered Alistair for a moment, then said in a more quiet voice, "You sure you want to be here for this? Not too late to row for the shore like Isabela suggested. A smart man might at least  _attempt_  an escape…"

"I don't think I've ever been accused of being a smart man," Alistair said glibly, then in a more grim tone added, "And I'm not abandoning anyone. You're all here because of me."

He didn't say it, but of everyone aboard, he was the only one likely to have any sway with the Qunari. He was a King after all, and just like Harmony, he had heard which of the grey giants was calling himself Arishok these days.  _If you're out there, Sten, try not to blow me to little pieces, for old times' sake,_ he thought as he stared at the oncoming dreadnought.


	14. The Magrallen

"Say what you will about Crows, they know how to cause a distraction," Nathaniel murmured as another explosion sounded in the distance.

It was a riskier plan than Harmony would have liked - letting a dreadnought fire on Ath Velanis was one thing, but letting men skirt its outer wall with explosives was bound to lure out a scouting party or two. All the same, they'd taken several days to properly prepare and to plan escape routes for Zevran and Sol. Their camp was well hidden further along the coast, and guarded by Ser Ellin and two Qunari spies. They were as close to safe as any of them could be given the circumstances. That would have to be enough.

She and Nathaniel followed Callista once more into the half-collapsed passageway that led beneath the outer walls of Ath Velanis, emerging in the fort's lower levels. The two rogues were already adept at sneaking, but combined with the Seer's ability to use just a drop of her own blood to weave a spell that discouraged anyone they encountered from noticing them pass, they were nigh untraceable.

Without incident, they returned to that room where prisoners were chained to the wall by their wrists. It was startling how much worse Titus' prisoner, Maevaris, looked in the few days since Harmony had last seen her. Bruised and bloodied, the life sucked from her bones and the hope gone from her eyes. It was troubling to imagine what she could have been through to have caused such a drastic change in so short a time, though given the blood magic ritual Harmony had witnessed on her last visit, perhaps not difficult to imagine what had taken place.

The blue dress adorned with feathers that she'd worn on arrival was torn to shreds now, and Harmony couldn't help but notice the distinctively male chest beneath what was left of the garment. She never would have guessed if the dress were still intact.

"Maevaris?" she asked, stepping into the room.

One eye was swollen so badly it could barely open, but she found the strength to lift her head and ask in a weak voice, "Do I know you?"

Harmony shook her head. "My name is Harmony Cousland. I'm-"

"-Harmony?" Maevaris interrupted, brightening just slightly at the name. "Oh, my darling... I've heard all about you. Kaffas, but this is the last place you should be."

"It's the last place anyone should be," Nathaniel insisted, examining the manacles that kept Maevaris chained to the wall. "Looks like a tricky lock. I'll look around for a key."

"May I ask how you know my husband?" Harmony asked in a soft voice as she reached into the pocket at her belt to pull out a small vial of red liquid, then removed the stopper from the bottle with her teeth.

"He attended a ball in Qarinus alongside the cousin of my late husband and a Pirate Queen by the name of Isabela," she answered, breath uneven as she strained to speak. "I'd offered the three of them my protection. Every Magister in the city was in attendance, it was a rare opportunity to see Titus out in the open. Alistair intended to confront him."

"Why help a man you'd never met?" Nathaniel asked as Harmony lifted the potion bottle to the Magister's lips and helped her to drink.

The woman swallowed gratefully, giving the concoction a moment to work its magic before responding. The relief as the pain eased throughout her aching body was immediately apparent. "Besides wanting to keep dear Varric out of trouble?" She gave a little snort as if such a feat was impossible anyway. "Titus is bad news - for the Imperium. For everyone. I'd been gathering information on him for a while, finding some troubling gaps, and some more troubling coincidences. The fact I was brought here at all proves I was right to do so."

"What about Alistair? Did he face Titus?" Harmony asked, her concern obvious.

Maevaris only had the strength to nod once. She chuckled slightly as she explained, "Aurelian tried to attack and got more than he bargained for. We Magisters aren't really used to going up against Templars - at least not the kind that come out of southern Thedas. When his magic failed him, Titus made a hasty exit and there was a bit of a kerfuffle in the wake of it. Alistair and his friends made it out safely though, and I encouraged them to move on from Qarinus before someone had them taken in for questioning."

Harmony knew her relief at the news was obvious. "We're going to get you out of here, Magister," she assured the Tevinter woman.

"You had to have come here for Alistair. Not me," Maevaris observed.

Harmony shook her head. "My allies among the Qunari are keeping Alistair safe. We came here for Maric."

Maevaris paled at the mention of the name. "Oh, that poor man," she sighed.

"Have you seen him?"

"Yes but..." She cringed, clearly remembering a sight that she would rather have forgotten. "Look, if that's why you're here, you don't have much time. The door is hidden in that wall. You want to go through it and head in a straight line for the laboratory."

Callista had already moved to the wall to ease away the spell that kept the doorway hidden from view. Harmony nodded and looked to Nathaniel. "Help her down. I won't be long," she instructed. Nathaniel simply answered with a nod.

That feeling of evil that permeated the dungeon grew far stronger as she made her way down that hidden corridor and into the room at the end of it. Laboratory was what Maevaris called it, though from its location, Harmony wondered if perhaps it had been a torture chamber before that. It saddened her that she'd seen enough torture chambers to figure that out.

A glowing red orb was the first thing that drew her eye as she approached the open doorway of the room, and a feeling in her gut told her it was the source of that feeling of just plain wrong that filled the air here. She absently noted the bookshelves lining the walls and the tables cluttered with apparatus and bottles filled with strange glowing liquids. Her gaze though, stayed fixed on that orb.

This had to be the Magrallen she'd heard Titus speak of - the artifact at the core of his nefarious plotting.

Alistair had no idea how much time had passed since Sten had locked him up in that Qunari fort - or if Isabela was even still alive, having been dragged off days ago. He'd been given a gruff speech about how it was all for his own good, and Sten had definitely used the word guest upon their arrival. That was somewhat undermined, however, by the locked door and barred window of the room he and Varric had been escorted to.

With nothing to do but wait, his thoughts had been restless, darting back and forth between the Queen he'd left behind in Ferelden and the father he hoped was still alive in Seheron. The best case scenario? He'd find Maric, give the throne back to him and go with Harmony to Amaranthine or Highever and live a happy enough - albeit childless - life. The worst scenario didn't bear thinking about, and the myriad of other ways things could pan out from this point was making his head start to pound.

It was a welcome respite when Varric alerted him to some kind of a ruckus going on outside their window. The dwarf dismissed his initial theory that perhaps the fort was under attack. "Listen to that shouting," he'd urged, mouth spreading into a little smirk that helped put Alistair at ease. "The Qunari are angry. Only one person I know can make folks that angry."

As if on cue, a sound behind them caught their attention. Suddenly a great poof of soot and dust filled the room, and then Isabela rolled out of the fireplace, carrying a dagger between her teeth and a Qunari sword in each hand.

It wasn't the time to discuss what the Qunari had put her through - or how she'd escaped it - but it was there behind the determination in her face. Alistair had seen enough of his friends dragged through the Void and back to recognize unspoken pain in someone's gaze. He'd seen it in Harmony when they'd first met, and too many times after that.

Isabela gave the swords to Alistair and Varric, then moved straight to the door to unlock it. Soon enough the trio were making their way through the maze that was the fort of Akhaaz, though it wasn't long before they had to split up again. Isabela had to search for her captured crew while Alistair and Varric searched for a way out - hopefully a way out that involved getting Isabela's ship back, but by that point they'd take just getting away in one piece.

Varric was a quick thinking rogue adept at sneaking up on unsuspecting Qunari guards, knocking them out and taking their keys, and Alistair… well he wasn't so bad at being the big lug of a distraction that allowed Varric to make his move. He'd been that enough times for Harmony, Leliana and Zevran during the blight.

It all fell into place quite nicely. They found a barred door that, judging by its size, location and the two guards they'd been forced to dispatch had to lead to a way out. Together they lifted the bar and heaved it open, hoping to see their chance at freedom.

Their reward was a view of the coastline, of a choppy sea and of stairs leading down to where several dreadnoughts and Isabela's poor ship - as sorry as it looked at present - were docked. What drew the eye more immediately, however, was Sten standing there as if he'd been waiting for them to emerge all along, holding probably the biggest warhammer Alistair had ever seen in one hand as easily as a mage held up a staff.

"Parsharra. You will not be permitted to leave," he said sternly. It took knowing Sten for quite a while to be able to discern the difference between normal Sten and angry Sten. It had been a few years, but Alistair could still recognize this as the latter.

In fact, he'd only seen that expression of riled up determination on Sten's face once before; when the Qunari had once made a challenge to Harmony's leadership in the village of Haven.

"Sten, it doesn't have to happen like this. Titus is our mutual enemy - we can work together!" Alistair pleaded. A bit of Kingly diplomacy was always worth a try, after all.

The Qunari's military leader gritted his teeth, lifted his warhammer with both arms and charged forwards. "I am no longer Sten," he reminded Alistair as he attacked.

Right, I knew that… Alistair thought as he jumped back, only just managing not to have his ribcage crushed by the unreasonably large weapon.

No getting away unnoticed then, and no talking his old friend down. It seemed that his only option now was to do what he'd seen Harmony do eight years ago and knock some sense into the giant. Assuming he doesn't knock me into next Tuesday first, he thought grimly.

It was about the size of a dragon's egg, held off the ground by some kind of stand that looked to be shaped like a talon. As she drew closer she noted that it appeared to be made of blood with streams of magic swirling around it like wisps of smoke. Every few seconds it seemed to crackle with an almost lightning effect - though Harmony couldn't say she'd ever seen a crimson bolt of lightning before. There were cords of red extending from the very top like vines, reaching towards the ceiling for... something.

It wasn't until she reluctantly stepped inside that she was able to look above the Magrallen and see for herself what was above it. The sight made the blood drain from her face. Instantly she felt woozy, her stomach churning and her knees weak beneath her.

There was a huge gold ring that hung from chains in the ceiling like a chandelier, only it wasn't candles it held, but a man. He was bound, chained within that ring of gold by his arms and ankles, suspended horizontally above the Magrallen, his position forcing him to stare down into it. Those cords of red disappeared into his body at his arms, his legs, his torso and hips. It was draining him. Slowly sucking the blood and the life from him.

Stepping in closer offered Harmony a better view of the poor soul, though she wasn't entirely certain how she'd managed to will her feet to move forward. He was gaunt and pale, almost corpse-like in truth, his hair and skin both drained and ashen. His eyes were open, unblinking, his face set into a somber expression that lacked any hope. It was the expression of a man who had been locked into this fate years ago and had long since given up dreaming of any escape. She couldn't tell if he was conscious or not, but certainly he gave no reaction to her entering the room. If she couldn't see his chest straining uncomfortably to draw air into his lungs, she might not have been able to say for certain he was even alive.

All of those things she noticed before it occurred to her that the man was familiar. His eyes, the shape of his nose, the crinkle in his brow... all of them reminded her of the man she loved more than anyone in the world. This man looked like Alistair.

And if he looked like Alistair, that meant...

"King Maric?" she breathed in disbelief. She'd seen the man once before in her childhood, but that man had looked nothing like the shell before her that made her skin crawl.

Before she really had time to process that, a hand landed on her shoulder, making her jump. "You are no Qunari spy," a dark voice murmured, the tone sending a shiver down her spine.

Harmony spun around to find herself face to face with Aurelian Titus, his gaunt face mostly shrouded by the black hooded cloak he wore. She couldn't begin to guess where he'd appeared from - certainly she'd been alone when she entered the room, and she'd heard no footsteps behind her.

She felt like she could barely breathe this close to him, but somehow she managed to remember to whistle the signal she and her party had agreed upon. The one that warned Nathaniel and Callista to abort the mission, to run and not look back. She hoped more than anything that they'd hear it and have the chance to get away, though for all she knew, they'd already been caught trying to free Maevaris.

Titus followed her gaze over his shoulder, glancing down the corridor she'd entered through. "Who might you be warning, I wond-"

The sentence was interrupted by a grunt, followed by a low gurgle as Harmony's dagger struck home. He'd been a fool to look away and there was no way she was going to chance waiting for a better opportunity. She'd thrust the blade in just below his sternum, pushing upward to pierce his heart and kill him quickly. Better than he deserved, perhaps, but the man was dangerous and needed to be dealt with.

She let go of the blade and he stumbled back instantly, clutching at the dagger's hilt as blood gurgled up and dribbled from his mouth.

Then, just as she thought she had him, that red glow that she now recognized as a bi-product of blood magic began to emanate from the wound. The blade came free all on its own, and as he raised a hand, it was struck with a burst of flame so strong that it was melted away to nothing in an instant.

Aurelian Titus strode towards Harmony, the wound in his chest mending itself as he did. She could tell by the anger in his eyes that he was considering a similar fate for her as had befallen her dagger, but he didn't attack her. He simply glared down at her and uttered one word. "Kneel."

Harmony fought it, but it was like swimming upstream against an overwhelming current. It felt like all she had the power to do was slow the inevitable, and she couldn't do it for long before the effort became exhausting. Her traitor legs buckled beneath her and in a moment she was on her knees, her head bowed subserviently.

"Your hand?" he asked.

Again, it seemed she had little choice in the matter. She fought it for a few seconds, but then she raised her hand for him and he grasped it. She shivered as she felt his fingers trace a slow circle around the crest on her wedding ring.

"A Theirin, but not by blood. Pity," he mused. "But you have sentimental value, I presume, or you would not have come." Harmony swallowed harshly as he crouched in front of her, attaching manacles to her wrists one by one. "Come, my dear. We have work to do."

The next few minutes for Alistair had been dicey indeed. It had been difficult to gain the momentum of the fight when the Arishok had attacked without warning. At one point the Qunari even had him flat on his back, but he'd somehow managed to fight his way back to his feet. Every time the warhammer narrowly missed one of his limbs, the flagstones beneath their feet ended up smashed to little pieces, which was more than a little unnerving.

Alistair had been dimly aware of soldiers rushing to the Arishok's aid, and of Varric throwing himself in their way. He vaguely heard the dwarf making up something about Sten challenging him to a duel, warning the other Qunari not to interrupt and throwing a couple of Qunlat words in for good measure.

Assured that he wasn't about to be surrounded by soldiers, Alistair gritted his teeth and focused on his opponent. The duel was brutal and bloody, and he hated having to face down a former companion. Eventually though, Sten's bullish strength was outmatched by Alistair's nimbleness, and once the King won the higher ground - above the Qunari on the stairs leading down to the docks - it was all over.

Pinned beneath him with a sword to his throat, Sten glared up at him and growled, "Let it be done."

Perhaps Sten would have killed Alistair if their roles had been reversed, but that didn't matter now. "I'm not going to kill you," he answered, tossing his sword aside and offering the man his hand. "We were allies once, Sten. We could be again. Your people and mine against Titus."

And that was all it took.

By sunset, he was standing once again on the deck of Isabela's ship, staring out to sea. Two dreadnoughts flanked them as they made their way up the coast towards Ath Velanis. The crew were even more uneasy about the oxmen since their capture - and Isabela had already inspired a healthy fear in them before that. The tension aboard the ship was palpable, and not helped at all by Sten's presence on the upper deck, arms folded, as large and as still as a golem awaiting orders.

Alistair had been promised answers, since it seemed perhaps that the Qunari knew something about the situation that he did not. There would be time for them to discuss it before their unlikely little armada arrived at its destination. For now, he wanted to check on Isabela.

He found her standing at the prow, but she wasn't alone. Varric was beside her, muttering in that low, serious voice that never meant good news. "You sure you want to go on, Rivaini? I mean, if this is more you signed up for…"

"Alistair deserves a chance to see this through," she answered, voice just as grim. "Even the damned Arishok sees that."

Alistair sighed, his guilt stopping him from joining them. He doubted there was anything he could say that would make it any better. He doubted all the money in Ferelden's coffers would make it better. He could only hope that whatever they found at Ath Velanis would make all of this worth it.

He wondered if Harmony would ever forgive him if it didn't.


	15. The Unexpected

**Chapter Fifteen: The Unexpected**

Harmony's mind found itself pushed into a treasured memory, painfully aware of the blood mage whose palm rested on her forehead as he forced her to show him something deeply personal of the man she loved.

"I don't know how to say this another way. I want to spend the night with you. Here, in the camp," Alistair was saying, hands fidgeting nervously as he recited the words she had never forgotten. "Maybe this is too fast, I don't know, but… I know what I feel."

 _You cling to this memory more tightly than any other,_ the deep, sinister voice of Aurelian Titus chuckled in her mind.

"I wanted to wait for the perfect time, the perfect place… but when will it be perfect? If things were, we wouldn't even have met." The memory was perfectly preserved, more clear to her now than it had been in years. "We sort of… stumbled into each other, and despite this being the least perfect time, I still found myself falling for you in between all the fighting and everything else."

 _A part of you is screaming,_ the voice noted with delight.

Both of them were torn between meeting the other's gaze and shyly looking away. Harmony's heart was racing, and she wondered if Alistair's was too. "I really don't want to wait anymore. I've… I've never done this before. You know that. I want it to be with you… while we have the chance. In case…"

 _This is too personal,_ he chuckled.  _Too private. I shouldn't be seeing this._

"Stop!" Harmony demanded crossly, just before the part where she was going to shush Alistair and draw him into a desperate kiss. At her insistence, the memory disappeared. For the moment. It wasn't exactly a relief when the torture chamber she lay in came back into view, Aurelian Titus looming over her, a cold hand still pressed to her forehead.

"You can't keep me out forever," he warned, lifting his hand away, severing for the moment the connection he'd forged with her blood. "With every moment at my mercy, you become more pliable. With every moment your resistance weakens. Would it not simply be easier to give in and tell me what I wish to know?"

"Easier for you, certainly," Harmony mused with a derisive snort.

On the outside she was calm. Within she was already steeling herself for what would come next. She'd lost all sense of time passing since her capture. There were no windows in the room he'd dragged her to, just veilfire torches, guards on the door and a table, which they'd lain her on and chained her to. If the lack of natural light wasn't enough to disorient her, the fact that she'd been kept unconscious whenever Titus left her certainly was. Based on the number of times they'd fed her and brought her drink, her guess was only a day, maybe two, but it was impossible to tell. For all she knew, Titus was capable of sustaining her with blood magic without her ever knowing.

What she did know was that this was her fourth session like this with the Magister, and he was right, each time her resistance ebbed away a little bit more. It wouldn't be long before she'd given him everything she knew about Alistair. Every memory. Every emotion. Every weakness. She'd travelled so far for him, fought so hard, and now she was going to be forced to betray him. There was nothing she could do but stay strong for as long as she possibly could and hope that it would be long enough.

 _I can't let Alistair end up like Maric, I can't let Alistair end up like Maric;_ a mantra she repeated over and over to herself, allowing the image of her husband's father chained to an ancient Tevinter artefact to haunt her, to help her stay strong against Titus with every fibre of her being. Even as Titus began cutting into her skin with a knife.

If there was a purpose to the exercise beyond hurting her and weakening her resolve, it eluded her. He'd start on the back of her hand, only breaking the top layers of her skin so that the blood wept out in a slow trickle. He carved a circular pattern much like the glyphs she'd remembered Wynne often casting, then worked his way up her arm, continuing the design as he told her how badly she'd failed Alistair and how lucky she was to be there to witness the rebirth of Tevinter.

She'd faced enough lunatics in her time to know that he believed in what he was doing. Once he'd completed the design on one arm, he would use the blood that had seeped from her broken skin to fuel his magic, healing the wounds he'd just inflicted, before rounding the table to begin anew on another arm.

Worse than the pain, worse than having to listen to his voice drone on endlessly, was the sight of Callista the Seer standing only a few footsteps away. Harmony couldn't fathom what the woman wanted, why she was staying so close or why nobody else seemed to see her there. She couldn't tell if it was a good or bad omen or if the Seer considered her an ally when she was trapped and helpless. All she could say for certain was that Callista had a demon of rage within her, one that had been able to take control because of Harmony's actions. Now that abomination was staring at her unblinkingly, watching her suffer, licking its lips at the spark of rage inside her that threatened to become a roaring flame.

At some point, Harmony became dimly aware of more guards coming into the room and insisting they had to report to Titus. The Magister finished cutting Harmony's forearm open and healing it before he looked up to see what they wanted.

"Master, the Qunari are firing on us," one of them reported. Harmony realized she'd been hearing rumbling booming sounds of in the distance, but had assumed it was a storm.

"Of course they are," Titus sighed, setting down the knife and stepping back. He was clearly agitated. Harmony focused on keeping herself from appearing smug. The Qunari arriving were her greatest hope, and now they had arrived. "They've been firing on us regularly for months."

"There's two dreadnoughts in our midst, Master. They show no sign of turning around," the guard explained.

 _That_ had Titus' attention. All the same, he picked up his knife again and turned his attention back to Harmony. "Defend the wall, keep me abreast of the situation," he ordered.

Harmony gritted her teeth in anticipation of yet more cuts, returning to that place in her mind where pain didn't matter so much. Where nothing mattered so much. She barely noticed the volume of those thunderous crashes grow louder, the impact of each cannon shot making the walls shake slightly.

She didn't know how long she'd waited before one of his cultists burst into the room and shouted in a flurried panic, "Master, they've breached the wall!"

Titus swore under his breath in Tevene, looking hesitantly at Harmony before he stormed towards the door with a flourish of his black cape.

* * *

Isabela's ship and the two Qunari dreadnoughts arrived at Ath Velanis in the midst of a storm, which seemed fitting, really. Crackling lightning and rumbling thunder intermingled with the deafening booms of the Qunari's cannons, and the answering fireballs and other spells from the mages within the fortress.

It had taken a frustratingly long time for the cannons to breach the outer walls, although during the attempt they'd managed to topple one of the towers inside the fortress as well. The more chaos they could cause on the inside the better. Everyone scrambling meant that Varric was going to have an easier time sneaking inside and looking for Maevaris as Alistair had asked.

Alistair knew, of course, that the dwarf's only hope of success lay in drawing Aurelian Titus out. Fortunately they'd brought with them something that Titus really wanted; him. His blood, more specifically, but Alistair preferred not to dwell on that creepy part as his landing party made its way towards the breach in the wall.

Guards were streaming out towards them while mages lined the walls to throw down their spells. Alistair and Isabela though were marching in flanked by a whole unit of Qunari warriors, none of whom seemed particularly phased by the onslaught coming their way. Not even as a familiar figure emerged.

Alistair recognized Titus even before he lowered the hood of his black cloak to reveal his bearded face with pallid skin and sunken in eyes.

"You seek me?" They heard him call. "You have found me."

Alistair took a deep breath, his grip on his longsword tightening.  _Well now we've gone and done it._

* * *

If he hadn't been digging so deep trying to learn everything he could about Alistair, perhaps Titus might have learned a thing or two about Harmony, such as why it was a bad idea to leave her alone. Since her captivity in Fort Drakon eight years ago, she'd never once worn something that didn't have a small pick concealed in it somewhere. Even stripped down to the padding beneath her armour, she wasn't without supplies.

She was so busy trying to work loose the piece of wire hidden in the seam of her waistband, she didn't notice Callista approach, until the Seer grasped her wrist and put the key into the lock of the chain at her wrist. "Time to move, Harmony Queen," she urged.

" _Now_ she helps me," Harmony sighed.

The Seer shrugged. "You were well guarded. I knew the Qunari would arrive sooner rather than later. It was necessary to bide my time."

Once freed, the Queen of Ferelden took a brief moment to rub at the marred skin on her wrists, then nodded and rose to her feet. Her legs wobbled beneath her as she rose, but she forged ahead, not wanting to stay in that room a moment longer. "Well it's not necessary now. Come on, we have to get to Maric so we can figure out a way to move him."

Face set in a scowl, she gathered her armour and weapons from where they'd been discarded on the floor at the other side of the room and put everything back where it should be. From the sounds of things, she didn't want to leave that room without protection.

Given that Aurelian had dragged her along the floor by her chained wrists to reach that private chamber, Harmony left it eager to take out some of her frustrations on the dragon cultists who followed him. Revered him, in fact, as she'd learned while she'd been alone with their leader. The thought made her skin crawl.

Whoever she might have countered rushing along that corridor on a normal day though was absent now, called away by the Qunari dreadnoughts in their midst as the gaatlok fire shook the fortress to its very foundations.

It wasn't until she neared the room of the sacrifice chamber where Maevaris had been chained up that she saw another soul. A dwarf, in fact, making his way slowly along the corridor with a rather unusual crossbow in hand. She did realize such a person was unlikely to be one of Titus' cultists, but she also knew that it was better to be safe than sorry.

She moved up behind him swiftly, using the sound of him opening the door to the sacrifice chamber to mask her approach. It took him completely by surprise when she pinned him to the wall and pressed a dagger to his throat, making sure he didn't have the leverage to do any harm with that crossbow. "Set it down," she ordered, nodding to the weapon.

"Sorry, Serah, but I don't set Bianca down for anyone," the dwarf answered in a gravelly voice, though he did raise one hand in surrender. He took a moment to look Harmony up and down. "Fereldan accent, Qunari armour," he observed. "Whatever you're doing here, I'm guessing it's not in Titus' best interests."

Harmony's eyes narrowed, but before she could speak, she heard Maevaris' weak voice over her shoulder. "Don't hurt Varric. He's dear to me."

Varric's eyes widened. "Mae?" He rushed to her side helped her down, deftly picking open the locks that had stumped Nathaniel. "What have they done to you?"

The Magister's legs wouldn't support her once he helped her down, and she ended up kneeling on the floor, hanging her head in shame. "I don't want you to see me like this."

"I'm sorry." The dwarf was clearly panicked to find her in such a state. "I should  _never_ have asked for your help. We shouldn't have left you at the ball-"

"You were in Qarinus with Alistair?" Harmony asked urgently before she could stop herself.

The dwarf's brow furrowed in confusion. "What's it to you?"

Maevaris sighed. "Varric, this is Harmony."

His face went slack with shock. "Wait. You're the- You're Alistair's-" He reached up with one hand to massage his temples as he processed that. "Maker's bursting blackheads. The Hero of Ferelden in the middle of all this? Just what we needed."

"Where's Alistair?" Harmony asked firmly. "Here?"

The dwarf nodded. "He's leading the attack on the fortress. Just in case you were thinking all that ruckus out there was Titus' cult throwing him a party." As if on cue, another explosion somewhere outside made the walls shake.

"The Arishok gave me his word…" she grunted, almost overwhelmed by her frustration.

Varric frowned harshly. "The Arishok  _what?"_

"Titus is dangerous and to get what he wants, he needs Alistair's blood," she snapped crossly. "What part of charging in here seemed like a good idea to my dear husband?"  _And how in the world did he convince Sten._

"It's done now." Maevaris' weakened voice still managed to carry, as accustomed as the Magister must have been to cutting across the rest of the Imperial senate. "We can bicker about it, or we can do what you both came here to do. Aurelian Titus must die."

Varric nodded. "Can you walk? We need to find Alistair's father."

"I'm fine," she answered stiffly. Raising a hand to the far wall, she summoned just enough mana to dispel the enchantment that kept the door there hidden, but the strength it took to do even that made her slump. "You want the laboratory."

"Wait for me," the dwarf said softly, then raised his crossbow and marched in that direction, with Harmony following on behind him.

Harmony knew when his eyes had found Maric by the way he paused mid-step on his way into the hidden chamber and inhaled sharply. For a good few moments, he didn't move, and she thought it best not to disturb him as he processed the horrific sight of a former King of Ferelden strung up above a glowing orb to be used in such a horrific manner.

She wasn't expecting it when his jaw tightened and he raised his crossbow to shoot the magrallen.

"Varric, no!" Harmony called, rushing in to try to push him and disrupt his aim. She knew even before she began to move though that there was too much space between them.

The bolt struck the heart of the Magrallen, causing it to shatter around the impact in a pattern much like a spider's web. Light burst from the wound, so bright it was blinding, flooding the room. Harmony was so stunned by it, she was barely aware when Callista grasped her by the arm, pulled her in and wrapped both arms around her in a tight embrace.

* * *

Admittedly, the battle had been going better before Titus started breathing fire at people. Dragonfire, he'd called it. Alistair had been trained as a Templar and never warned of such magic. All he knew was that he'd watched a lot of people on the same side as him get turned to ash by it.

Everything was chaos now, but he tried to stay fighting at Isabela's side. They'd both saved each other's lives a few times already, and considering how many mages were around, he wanted to stay close to the friend who had brought him this far. There was no one else who could give her a Templar's protection.

The battlefield offered them a moment to breath, all the enemies immediately surround them dispatched already, and everyone else farther ahead. Alistair was looking around, trying to spot Titus amidst all the mayhem and confusion, but it was Isabela who saw movement further up the coast, saw people coming towards the battle from the other direction.

Her eyes narrowed as she nudged Alistair and asked, "Don't I know that elf?"

"Maker's breath!" Alistair's brows knit into a deep frown as two familiar faces came into view. They were two people he had never expected to see moving side by side, let alone this far to the north on the outskirts of a Tevinter Magister's fortress. One was a blond Antivan elf with a tattoo across one cheek and a smirk Alistair would recognize anywhere. The other was a formidable Fereldan warrior by the name of Ellin - a woman whose usual unenviable task was to guard Harmony.

"Your Majesty," the latter called as the two rushed to catch up. "The Arishok gave the Queen his word that you wouldn't be brought here," she said, before Alistair had the opportunity to voice any of the myriad questions battling to be the first he asked.

"The... Queen?!" he repeated incredulously, unable to fathom what in the world was going on. "The Arishok  _what?_ What are you even doing here? And with  _Zevran?"_

Zevran bowed. "Ah, but it is good to see you, my fine friend." The elf was smirking, but there was a weariness around the eyes that betrayed him. "And quite marvellous to see  _you,_ Isabela," he added, looking to the pirate captain and then sinking into a deep bow.

Isabela rolled her eyes, her lips quirking up in wry amusement. "We  _are_  in the middle of a battle, in case you hadn't noticed."

"Spattered with blood is such an enticing look for you," he added, winking.

"Is it bad that I've come to expect this from him?" Isabela asked Ser Ellin.

The knight pinched the bridge of her nose and sighed. "I think it's bad that I've stopped noticing it."

"Can we stop with all the flirting for a moment and get back to the part where my wife sent you here?" Alistair demanded in that loud kingly voice he'd learned to use that cut across other voices quite well. Looking to Ellin - whose expression was now far too sympathetic to possibly mean good news - he asked softly, "Where's Harmony?"

Ellin's mouth opened as if to speak, but the words didn't come. Instead, she shifted her gaze to the fortress ahead of them.

"Here?" Alistair gasped, running a hand through his hair. "How can that be?"

There was no time to answer, because just as they all looked to the fortress, a white light began to glow from beyond its walls. Something magical, Alistair presumed, but his guesses ended there.

There was just enough time to hear Isabela call, "Maker's balls, what's that?"

A flash of white exploded from the fortress, growing larger until it blocked out the sky, blocked out everything so that all the world was blinding light.

And then, nothing.

* * *

It took Harmony's eyes a while to recover from that flash of light. When the room did come back into focus, she yanked herself out of Callista's grasp and rushed to Varric's side.

The dwarf lay flat on his back on the floor with his crossbow beside him, unmoving. For one panicked moment Harmony thought he might be dead, but she quickly realized that the man's chest was rising and falling in the steady rhythm of someone in peaceful slumber.

"What happened?" she asked, gaze drifting to the Magrallen. That glowing red orb was still in one piece in spite of the crossbow bolt that pierced it. The wound crackled with untamed magic every now and then, but otherwise seemed to be holding together.

"I shielded you." Callista looked more sinister than before. Her eyes had always given hints of the demon of rage within her, but now one glowed a sinister red that matched the Magrallen. It was a surprise that when she replied, it was with her own voice, and not the deeper rumble that signified that Vex was the one in charge. "Titus brought this thing here... created this," she gestured to poor King Maric, still alive, still chained motionless above the thing, "to bring back the time of the Dreamers. For now, they all dream."

"They... all?" Harmony frowned deeply as she considered that, her eyes widening as it dawned on her that she could no longer hear the steady boom of the Qunari cannon shots.

Leaving Varric behind, she ran from the room, back in the direction they'd come from. Sure enough, Maevaris was in the same state as the dwarf, passed out asleep on the bloodied stone tiles of the sacrifice chamber. From there Harmony continued on, through the doors, up the stairs and out of the prison. She didn't stop running until she reached the battlements, in fact. And from there, she was able to take a breath and grasp the true impact of Callista's words, though her eyes could scarcely believe it.

They all dream, the Seer had said.

And by all, she meant the mages on the battlement, spellbooks open to the page they'd landed on. She meant the Qunari, their ships, the warriors charging in, now asleep, their soul weapons still firmly in their grasp. She meant the people she'd led to Ath Velanis. She meant the pirates who had brought her husband to this place. She meant Alistair himself, Harmony was certain. Titus too, no doubt. Somewhere in the middle of the sea of people collapsed beyond the walls of the fortress.

They all dream, the Seer had said. Every last one of them. The only people conscious in the entire fortress, out of the entire army attacking it, were Harmony and an abomination.

"Oh, Maker's breath," she sighed.


	16. Father and Son

There was an odd feeling in Alistair's chest as his horse followed along beside his father's. As if a hole in his heart had been filled, while another had opened up. As if something was missing from the very core of him.

_Or... maybe I'm just hungry,_ he mused glibly, pushing the uncomfortable thought aside.

"Are you listening, my son?" Maric asked him, that slight edge in his voice that warned Alistair that he really  _ought_ to be listening to the lecture on mage rights. "These are important issues for a king to consider."

"Maker forbid Ferelden gets  _that_ unlucky!" he jibed, unsure why his own remark made him feel  _quite_ as uncomfortable as it did. "No, I think we'll all be better off if I leave kingly concerns to my brother."

Maric gave Alistair a pointed look. "There may come a day when your brother and I are gone, and it is King Alistair to whom everyone looks. What will you do then?"

Alistair smirked. "Oh, probably ask my youngest son on a hunting trip, then spend the whole time lecturing him to consider the difficulties of ruling a kingdom."

His father chuckled, just as Alistair's horse began to fidget restlessly, throwing its head and chomping at the bit as it grew impatient with their slow pace. "It's not just you who's growing restless, apparently. Why don't you let him run for a bit? We'll catch you up at the river."

"You can say his name, you know?" Alistair teased, patting his horse on the shoulder.

Maric pursed his lips. "I'd rather not."

"Awww, don't listen to him, Whinny-Fred," Alistair told the purebred Fereldan Forder, who was fortunate enough to be blissfully ignorant of his own terrible name. Grinning at his father, Alistair urged the horse into motion with a nudge of his heels.

"Take Ser Ellin with you!" he heard Maric call after him. A quick glance over his shoulder confirmed that the guardswoman was already in pursuit.

A few minutes of a good steady canter brought them to the river's edge, and Alistair quickly dismounted so that he could lead Whinny-Fred to the water.

"It's good that I got you alone, your majesty," Ser Ellin said urgently as she dismounted as well.

"It's y _our highness,"_ he corrected. "And I can think of far more  _pleasant_ places to be alone with a beauty such as yourself."

The guardswoman sighed and shook her head. "We need to look for the others. I imagine your companions are here somewhere, along with your wife," she said all at once, not pausing for a breath so that he could begin to wrap his head around where he actually was _._ "As I recall, the thing to do is keep moving and allow the Fade to guide you to where you need to be."

"Fade?" he repeated, quite confused by that. "Oh, I see. You're saying that being in the forest with a Prince of Ferelden is a dreamy experience? I get that a lot." After a moment, his brow furrowed and he said, "Wait a minute, did you just say  _my wife?"_

She nodded. "Queen Harmony. Whatever dream she's found herself in, it won't hold her for long. I imagine she'll find us before we find her. Come on, we need to move."

Now Alistair's face was furrowed with concern. "Has my father been working you too hard?"

Ser Ellin sighed impatiently, then quite suddenly grabbed him by the tunic and shook him. "Forgive me, Majesty but-"

"Ellin!" someone called over the guardswoman's shoulder, and she let go of Alistair as she turned to see who it was.

Already a bit shaken from the guardswoman grabbing him, Alistair's eyes widened as he took in the sight of a dwarf with a crossbow, a Rivaini woman wearing not nearly enough to keep warm in the middle of a Fereldan forest, a blonde woman wearing long Tevinter robes, and a smirking elf with a tattoo on one cheek. "Uh… Have we met?" he asked as the unlikely group approached him.

"Maker, I never thought I'd be pleased to see  _you,_ elf," Ellin grunted.

The elf grinned and gave a little bow. "It seems you had things well in hand, my dear." The accent was Antivan, Alistair noted.  _Curiouser and curiouser..._

The guardswoman opened her mouth to speak, but Alistair quickly interrupted with, "Someone has some explaining to do." He paused as he heard the rumbling of hooves approaching at a fast pace, then added, "And I don't think you've got much time to do it."

"Trouble, my son?" he heard as his father and his guards approached on their horses, swords already drawn.

"Uh oh," Alistair hummed. "Now you've done it."

His father's horse skidded to a halt, and Maric began to speak in that stern, kingly voice that made anyone who heard it sit up and take notice. "I am King Maric, sovereign of Ferelden and protector of its lands. Whoever you are, whatever reason you are here, you are  _not_ welcome."

* * *

Harmony had seen battlefields before. She'd seen far too many people dead or injured, their bodies sprawled across the streets of Denerim or Amaranthine. She'd seen funeral pyres so large that their flames seemed to touch the sky, but she'd never been alone with so many bodies. It felt like being the last person alive in all the world.

Not all were dead, that was true. Most were sleeping. Still, it was hard to convince herself of that as she clambered over the rubble of the hole in the battlements. All she saw were bodies lying still.

It was also true that she wasn't exactly alone. The Seer, Callista, walked at her side, one eye glowing a bright red - a constant reminder now of the demon who was now, it seemed, completely in control. The abomination was Harmony's fault, and hardly a comfort, especially considering that glowing red eye had watched, silent and unblinking, as her enemy had tortured her. Callista had been waiting, and Harmony couldn't help but wonder if the demon of rage within her had somehow known that this would be the outcome.

The pair made their way out onto the battlefield, seeing a mixture of robed mages, armoured Tevinter guards, Qunari and pirates all laid out on the rocks, lost to the dreams that had taken them. Not far away, three ships drifted aimlessly in the water, and Harmony could only hope they weren't all dashed on the rocks before the situation could be remedied. She had to assume that it  _could_ be remedied. If it couldn't... well, then she was trapped on a Seheron beach with an abomination, surrounded by hundreds of sleeping bodies, with no hope of rescue. Not the best ending to a daring adventure.

"Do you see Alistair anywhere?" she called to Callista.

"We do not search for Alistair," the Seer replied, crouching down beside one body to turn it onto its back so that she could see the face.

" _I_  do," Harmony insisted. It had been the whole reason she'd left Ferelden and come all this way. She was hardly going to stop now just because an abomination said so.

Callista rose to her feet and shrugged. "He sleeps. As does your enemy. Would you not prefer to deal with your enemy first?"

Harmony's eyes narrowed, but she couldn't really argue with that. Months apart, of fretting for Alistair's safety, of being terrified that what had once been between them might be broken now, made it hard not to rush to his side when she knew he was this close. But Aurelian Titus was the threat. Not just to the man she loved, but to everyone who had come here to face him. Perhaps all of Thedas, if his plan succeeded. That didn't bear thinking about.

Her feet paused beneath her, but her eyes didn't stop searching for Alistair's familiar face. "What... would happen if I stabbed the man in his sleep?" she asked the Seer.

"Then he would die in his sleep," Callista confirmed. "Perhaps his spirit would linger in the Fade, but it would be nothing but a plaything for the demons by that point. I imagine after he tethered so many denizens of the Fade, wasted so many to augment his powers, that my kind would especially enjoy the chance to play with him."

Harmony considered that for a while, then finally nodded. "Let's find Titus first," she agreed.

* * *

Everyone was talking so fast. One moment King Maric had been threatening the bizarre band of misfits who had shown up out of the blue, the next he was agreeing to hear them speak. None of it made any sense to Alistair at all until the pirate woman stepped closer to him and said something that truly struck a nerve. "Alistair, you're the bloody  _king_!"

His sword was at her throat before she could blink. "You speak treason!" he insisted fiercely.

The dwarf moved in quickly, nudging Alistair's sword arm out of the way and placing himself in front of the Rivaini. " _I'm tired of being a pawn, Varric - I'm going to find Aurelian Titus and I'm going to kill him. I'm going to find Maric, and then I'm going home… to be king._ Your words, Alistair. " The dwarf was clearly furious, but it was the familiarity of those words that felt like a punch in the gut.

"I know it's tough being handed something you always wanted. Tell yourself the stories you need to tell, but don't be fooled by them. Never live your own lies." The dwarf paused to take a breath, his gaze shifting to the man whose horse was now standing beside Alistair. "You agree, don't you, King Maric?"

Maric bowed his head and swallowed harshly, and all Alistair could do was stare at his father incredulously.

"That's the  _real_ Maric?" he heard the Rivaini woman ask quietly. "And he knows?"

The dwarf nodded. "Of course he knows."

With a heavy sigh, Maric got down from his horse so that he could look his son in the eyes. "I always hoped you would find me, Alistair. I swear I thought you were part of the dream."

"Father?" Alistair asked in a shaky voice, though it didn't take long from there for the illusion to ebb away. The truth he hadn't allowed himself to see was undeniable now. He had never known Maric outside of this place. They had never spoken before now. None of this was real.

The forest and the river and the horses faded away, leaving them all standing on a bleak island beneath a hauntingly strange sky. Alistair closed his eyes tightly, pushing the pain aside as he forced himself to remember why they were there.

And who they still needed to find. It didn't take much to convince his father and his unlikely group of allies to follow him after Aurelian Titus. Each of them was ready to fight their way back to the waking world, and to finish this once and for all.

* * *

Aurelian Titus didn't look nearly so frightening when he lay unconscious on the ground wrapped up in his own dark cape. Harmony had found him before Callista, and quickly dropped to her knees at his side.

She drew a dagger and raised it above the man's heart ready to finish the job, but Callista's hand closed around her wrist. It wasn't Callista's voice that spoke next though, but the low rumble of Vex's voice, bubbling with anger as always. "Death is too good for him."

"That doesn't matter," Harmony insisted. "He's a threat to all of Thedas. We need to deal with him." It only occurred to her after she said it that Vex cared little for all of Thedas.

Callista's grip grew burning hot. "I feel the hatred within you. You burn with fury. I saw him hurt you. Torment you. I know you desire greater vengeance than death."

Harmony felt her skin begin to sizzle, and hissed in pain as she pulled away. She glanced down at the hand-print shaped burn where Callista's hand had been that was already in desperate need of a balm. Vex was the more pressing issue now though, and Harmony turned to face the abomination, drawing her second dagger.

Vex didn't back down. "For what was done to you, for what was done to Maric, he must be made to suffer. As your husband would have suffered." Of course he knew everything to say by now to make the anger burn within her, far worse than the burning of her skin.

"Not like this," she insisted. "Stand. Down."

"The madness of it is indescribable," Vex continued. "Callista has begged me for death so many times since I claimed her as my vessel. He would scream within and pray for release as I dragged his shell through this world. No control. No recourse. That is how you want him, is it not? Helpless, as you were helpless."

A part of her did want that, it was true, and he could see it. But the price was to let a rage abomination with the powers of a Magister - one with knowledge of ancient Tevinter magic, no less - roam free in her world. Even if that hadn't been the price, her answer would have been no. Vengeance wasn't the answer. She'd learned that when she'd killed Nathaniel's father. Vex could harp on all day about how angry she was, how much she was hurting, and it would never change what she already knew to be true.

"I won't let you do this," she said firmly.

She already knew what Vex was going to say before he said it. Callista's eyes became white-hot with fury as her hands glowed with magical flames. "I won't let you stop me," the abomination insisted.

* * *

Their journey through the Fade soon brought them to the dream of the man they were hunting. They saw the world Aurelian Titus planned to build. A sky full of dragons and the sound of screams. It stank of ash and incense. The Imperium restored to what Titus thought it was always meant to be, or so Maevaris explained. The thought seemed to sicken her just as much as it did the rest of them.

They moved as quietly as they could into his lair, killing his men as they went and taking their cloaks for disguises. It seemed easier than it should have been, but Alistair soon realized that Maevaris was casting a spell as they walked, chanting the words under her breath, her hands glowing faintly with magic. She was keeping them hidden.

Certainly without her, they would have never have managed to arrive in the center of Titus' lair and see that look of surprise on his face. Ellin stood at Alistair's side while Zevran, Isabela and Varric quickly moved to surround their enemy. Maevaris, meanwhile, stayed back with Maric to keep him defended.

Titus glared at Alistair, nostrils flaring. "You should have run. There are void places. Gaps between dreams. There, you might have lived."

Alistair grimaced and drew his sword. "We'll take our chances."

That was when the demons began to surge.

Surrounded on all sides by the denizens of the Fade, they were on the defensive from the start. Isabela and Zevran did what they could to use stealth and speed to confuse, but it was difficult when they were coming from every direction. Varric was in trouble almost immediately, not having the distance he needed to wield Bianca effectively.

Titus was more than a match for the lot of them. Protected by his front line of demons he summoned spell after spell, targeting Alistair's allies one at a time with fireballs and blood wounds. All the while he roared at the top of his lungs about the blood of the great dragons and tapping the power of the old gods. Alistair was fighting too hard to even hear most of it.

When Alistair finally managed to push past the demons to charge at Titus, the Magister cast a spell that launched a knot of snakes at him. He slashed at the first of them, easily chopping their heads off, but more soon came, coiling around him quickly, forcing him to drop his sword and then tightening around his throat until he could barely breathe. "Now... would be a good time," he rasped.

There was a blinding flash of magic that drew everyone's attention to Maric and Maevaris as they walked into the fray. "Enough. Leave him be," Alistair heard his father command.

"You?" Titus seethed, gaze shifting to the man he had held captive for years. "You are but a remnant."

With the Magister's attention snatched away, the snakes vanished. "Keep the demons off him," Alistair roared, struggling to snatch up his sword so he could continue to help his friends fight through the chaos. "Keep them back!"

The air around Maric crackled with magic as Maevaris put everything she had into a glyph designed to protect him and keep the demons at bay, and he continued to march towards Titus, unphased by the mayhem ensuing around him.

"The world is  _mine_ ," Titus insisted crossly. "Tevinter will be as it was in  _legend._ A dream made reality. The Magrallen's magic is our legacy…"

"But it's empowered by  _my_ blood." Maric gripped his sword, walking straight through the torrent of flame that Titus conjured, completely unharmed by the magic. "You are not the dreamer here."

Titus was still babbling about the glory of Tevinter even as he stumbled back from Maric.

"I am," Maric said coldly, then struck Titus' head from his shoulders.

* * *

Rage demons and mages were similar enemies in that you had to keep your wits about you or the moment you lost focus you'd find yourself blasted with flame. Her battle with Vex wasn't quite like fighting either, and Harmony found that she was defending herself, trying to evade, more often than she was able to actually attack.

Every time she got too close to the abomination, she found herself blasted backwards, landing painfully on her back and having to gasp to regain the air thrust from her lungs by the fall. The bodies littered everywhere didn't make it any easier, and leaping over strewn limbs slowed every attempted approach. If only the rest of her party had been there, she might have been able to let them distract, to get in close and finish it before anyone was hurt. As it was, she was on her own, doing what she could.

"Why bring me all this way, why protect me from the Magrallen, only to betray me now?" she demanded, hoping to buy herself a moment to recover by voicing the question. She knew she couldn't keep up the fight much longer by that point.

Vex took the bait as so many of her enemies had before him. "Betray? I promised to bring you to Titus and your king. I said nothing of what I would do once-"

He paused as he realized that Harmony had started moving again.

All she could think to do was charge forward as quickly as she could. One big push to get in close and end it. She launched into a jump, narrowly dodging out of the way of Vex's fireball and rolling forwards into her landing so that she ended up crouched at the possessed mage's feet. It happened so fast that Vex didn't have time to ready his next spell.

As she rose, the blade caught Callista in the chest and Harmony thrust it in to the hilt.

The seer's eyes widened as she sagged, then slid from the blade and fell backwards, landing awkwardly on the rocks. Harmony breathed a sigh of relief, assuming it was finished, but then Vex abandoned his dying vessel and surged out in true fiery form to attack again.

Short of ice magic, there was no quick way to kill a rage demon. Harmony used her superior speed to keep it from burning her too badly and wore it down with strikes from her daggers as best she could. It was gruelling, and it took almost everything she had left to survive the encounter.

Finally, with a roar, Vex sank into the ground and vanished, the flames of his body dying away to nothing. Harmony dropped to her knees, barely finding the strength to hold onto her daggers. Her hair was singed, her body bloodied and bruised, her head pounding.

Laid out on the rocks beside her, Callista was panting heavily, her broken body trying desperately to keep drawing air into her lungs even though every breath looked to be agony. Her eyes looked normal now, amber brown in colour, staring up at the stormy clouds above them as if she hadn't seen the sky with her own eyes in years.

Still panting heavily, Harmony dragged herself to Callista's side. The woman met her gaze with an accepting expression, then reached out to take her hand. Harmony didn't resist.

"You did it, Hero," the Seer breathed. "He's gone."

Harmony closed her eyes. "I'm so sorry, Callista. Everything that happened to you…"

"Shhh…" Callista urged gently. "I knew the risks when I forced you to face my demons in the first place. I knew the risks when I bound spirits to my will. All you have done is what you needed to do to reach your love. And you will do it. You will. You are so close."

The Queen of Ferelden wasn't sure if she was crying because the situation felt far more hopeless than Callista made it sound, or because she was aware that Callista was only a few breaths away from death.

"There is peace in my mind again. That is all I wanted, even if only for a few moments."

After a moment the woman's eyes glazed over and she became still, and Harmony knew she was gone. She closed the woman's eyelids and bowed her head in silent prayer to the Maker before struggling back to her feet.

A sudden pained cry brought her attention to where Titus lay, and she turned just in time to see the man reach a hand towards the sky, then fall limp again. His eyes had opened, but they were still and staring at nothing, just as Callista's had been a moment ago. Blood trickled from his mouth and his chest was too still for her to think he could still be breathing.

Puzzled, she crouched beside him and touched a hand to his neck, finding no pulse as she did. There was nobody to ask, no one to turn to for an explanation. There was only the fact that her enemy was dead. It was a relief, she supposed, but it was hard to feel that was true when she was still completely alone. She plunged her second dagger into his chest just to be sure. There was no sense in risking it.

After that, there was only one thing she could think to do.

For far too long she stumbled through the field of limp bodies looking for the only one that truly mattered, for the reason she was there, for the reason she would never give up.

When she caught a glimpse of splintmail trimmed with fur, and of a shield bearing the Theirin family crest, she broke into a limping run. The man was sprawled on his side, and for all the dirt and blood coating his skin, it wasn't until she knelt beside him and turned him over that she could be certain it was him.

For a moment her heart ceased to beat in her chest. "Alistair."

He was in one piece, no obvious injuries, his breathing a steady rhythm. Simply sleeping. She adjusted them both so that his head rested in her lap, and brushed the mud from his face.

It was him. It was really him.

* * *

The Fade was calm after that. The dragons, the demons, the nightmares - all vanished, leaving only the desolate landscape of the raw Fade. Endless chained-together islands floating through a stormy green sky, the ominous silhouette of the Black City every-present above them.

Alistair could feel that the hold on him was lifted. He could wake, if he chose to, and he knew he should do so soon. Maker knew what was going on around his physical body. He hadn't forgotten that all of this had befallen them in the middle of a battle in the waking world.

They had to hurry, but not before he'd had a chance to speak with his father.

"That's it, we won?" Isabela asked as she helped Varric to his feet.

Maevaris stared down at Titus' severed head and sighed. "Sad that he didn't understand what he was creating. Not truly."

"We can wake now, yes?" Zevran asked, dusting himself off as he rolled to his feet.

"Any hold Titus had on us is gone. You can leave," Maric answered wearily.

Alistair barely heard the others. He was focused on his father for the moment. "What about you?" he asked the man.

"Some of our party broke into Titus' fortress and returned to tell of a blood-fuelled device called the Magrallen," Ellin reported, standing at attention before the two kings of Ferelden. "King Maric, your body is…  _attached_ to it somehow."

"I saw it myself in Titus' laboratory," Varric said grimly. His lips pressed into a thin line for a moment, then he looked to Maric and added, "With respect, your Majesty, you don't look well."

"No. I imagine the Magrallen is all that's keeping me alive now." The man sighed. It broke Alistair's heart how very tired he sounded, how resigned to his fate he seemed to be.

It wasn't the kind of conversation with his father Alistair had ever hoped to have,  _especially_ in front of the others, but there wasn't much choice. If he couldn't convince Maric to leave with them, he'd never have a chance to speak with the man again. All he could do was beg his father not to give up.

"Alistair… Seeing you again, knowing Ferelden is in good hands… It's enough. You don't need me," he insisted.

Alistair swallowed harshly. "No. I don't. But you can't live in a dream, no matter how happy you are - you come back and you try again. I don't  _need_ you, but you  _deserve_ a second chance." He gave an encouraging smile and put a hand on his father's shoulder. "We can do it together."

"If that's what you want, then I'll try," the man finally agreed, clasping one of Alistair's hands in both of his.

And that was all that needed to be said between them.

As his father released him, he felt Zevran place a hand on his shoulder and say in a far softer voice than usual, "Come. There is someone who has traveled a very long way to see you, my friend."

Waking wasn't a sudden thing for Alistair. His father's face faded slowly until for a moment there was nothing but black. Slowly, things around him encroached on his awareness. The sound of crashing waves. The smells of salt, fire, and… and something  _familiar._ The warmth of another person, of arms wrapped around him. Arms he knew. Arms that made him feel like he was home.

His eyes opened and quickly focused on the face of the woman he loved.

"Harmony…" he breathed the name in disbelief. There were a million questions that needed answering, but none of them mattered the moment his eyes met hers. Alistair's arms enveloped his wife to cling to her the way a drowning man clung to a raft. "You came."

He felt her squeeze back just as tightly. "Of course I did."


	17. Together

Harmony felt Alistair squeeze her hand tightly as he laid eyes on King Maric - or what was left of him. "It's… really bad," her husband said in a choked voice, eyes shining with the threat of tears. She squeezed his hand in return, but there wasn't much she could say in response.

The Magrallen had absorbed the crossbow bolt that Varric had fired into it. The cracks that had formed around the wound were healed now, the ancient artefact as whole as when Harmony had first laid eyes on it.

"There are healing magics," Maevaris was telling them in a weak voice. She hadn't been healed in the hours since Harmony had last seen her; she still sported a blackened eye and a split lip, she was still wrapped up in Varric's cape. "I've heard rumours about the Dalish, and another Magister, exiled to the Anderfels… Legend says they could graft spirit onto flesh to restore life. But… I don't know."

A longshot in other words, Harmony surmised, not easing her grip on Alistair's hand. He was silent, staring up at his father with a heartbreaking expression. She hoped that once he'd had a moment to consider it, he'd come to the same conclusion that she had. Maric had suffered enough. It wasn't right to prolong his suffering for the sake of a slim chance. It was time to let him go. Time to let him find peace.

For a long while, Alistair didn't move, and they all waited in silence for his decision.

Eventually Varric reached up and placed a hand on his shoulder. "It's a terrible thing, to live as part of someone else's story. You need to finish this, or the story will never end."

Alistair squeezed Harmony's hand, then released it and nodded, his face suddenly far more grim as he stepped towards his father. "I thought I needed Maric." His hand landed on the hilt of his sword. "He needed me."

In one swift movement, he drew his blade and sliced through the Magrallen, thoroughly shattering the orb. This time there was no great flash of light. No explosion of magic. Just shards of blood red glass scattered across the floor.

Maric had been right about the Magrallen being the only thing still keeping him alive. Within seconds, the former king's skin began to crack, and then his body crumbled away until the chains that had held him were empty.

* * *

As night fell, pyres lined the Seheron beach. Titus' men had all retreated inland by that point, knowing full well that there was no surrendering to the Qunari. With them gone, the burning of the dead had become the most pressing issue. Isabela's pirates grouped together at one end of the beach, sharing what alcohol they could find and paying tribute to those they had lost.

The Qunari ignored them, tending to their own wounded and dead and lighting separate pyres further along the beach. Alistair might have taken prisoners from the wounded among Titus' forces, but that wasn't the Qunari way. Any one of those Vints could have been a mage, and even those that weren't had certainly been exposed to blood magic. Sten and those he commanded had all been in Seheron long enough to know it was better to not take chances.

The burning of those bodies was overseen by the Arvaarad - the Qunari equivalent of templars - who would know what to look for in case of any curses or unexpected magical effects taking hold. It was the Arishok, meanwhile, who oversaw the funeral rites for his lost warriors. Their swords - their souls, as the Qunari saw it - were thrust into the sand to surround the pyre on which those bodies burned.

There was one final pyre, a small one, separate from the others, upon which the remains of King Maric were burned. The gathering for that was far smaller, limited only to the companions who had accompanied them north. It wasn't the first King of Ferelden Harmony and Alistair had lit a pyre for. In silence, they held hands and stood to watch it burn until the flames had died down to embers.

Harmony could see the tracks of tears down Alistair's face, the dampness reflected in the firelight. She could only imagine what he was feeling, to have found the father he had never known only to lose him again. She hadn't even noticed that she was crying too until the tears made the flames blur in her vision. If asked, she couldn't have said what she was crying for. There were too many reasons. Both she and Alistair had lost so much, come so far, fought for so long. At the end of it all, both of them were still together. It was hard not to be overwhelmed.

By the time the fire went out, the sky was begin to lighten, dawn not far off. Eventually their companions drifted back to where the pirates were still busy drinking, singing, mourning and keeping out of the way of the Qunari. Alistair moved to follow them, but Harmony tightened her grip on his hand, and dug her heels into the sand so that he would have to stop.

"Walk with me?" she asked in a very small voice.

Alistair's gaze softened as he looked to her. She so rarely let herself be weak in front of anyone, even him. He nodded, and let her pull him in the opposite direction, following the beach up the coastline.

Neither of them spoke, they just let their feet carry them until the sun was peering over the horizon and the dying pyres were far behind them, the fortress and the ships all out of sight for now. They stopped walking once they reached the camp that Harmony's group had shared with the Qunari spies, who seemed to be gone now - probably having left to join their people once they'd heard the gaatlok being fired.

Harmony sat down in the sand and Alistair did the same. Together they watched the sun rise, neither one saying a word. There was a lot to say, of course, but for now there was time to simply be together on that misty Seheron beach, and that was precious.

Eventually it was Alistair who broke the silence. "Harmony, I'm sorry. I shouldn't ha-" His words were interrupted by her pressing a finger to his lips.

"I know," she murmured, shifting in the sand so that it would be easier to face him. She met his gaze, let him  _see_ the things that were hard to put words to. That she forgave him. That she was sorry too. That she loved him more than ever.

For a moment Alistair's eyes became misty and she thought he was going to cry again - and  _knew_ she would cry as well if he did. But then he simply cupped her face with both hands and kissed her deeply.

Her arms wrapped around him automatically and she became aware in an instant of just how much her body had missed his. When their lips parted, she barely paused for a breath before moving to straddle his lap and kiss him again, her hands cupping his face this time, her thumbs stroking back and forth across the soft stubble of his cheeks. His hands landed on her waist and he tugged her closer so that their bodies were pressed firmly together.

A fire reawakened in that moment as they kissed each other breathless. Alistair rolled them over so that Harmony lay on her back in the damp sand, then held himself over her, his gaze tender as his eyes moved over her, taking in the burn at her wrist, the various bruises and scratches that had happened while fighting Vex and making her way to him. The ground beneath her was damp and there was sand sticking to her skin and hair, but she was barely aware of it. All she noticed was the look in his eyes.

Alistair gently lifted the arm that Vex had burned so that he could press his lips lightly to her skin, slowly planting a light trail of kisses around the edge of the injury. From there, he kissed his way up her arm and over her shoulder, then buried his face in the crook of her neck and breather, "Maker's breath, but you're beautiful."

Harmony couldn't begin to imagine how he could find her beautiful while she was exhausted and filthy from the battle, but she didn't argue, just held him close and pressed a kiss to his temple.

After that, they fetched some supplies from one of the tents and began something that had become a ritual for them eight years ago during the blight; helping each other out of their armour and treating all the smaller injuries that didn't need a healer's attention. She let him put the balm on her burn and in return she helped to clean and dress some of his wounds.

When it was done, they walked down the the water and waded in, relieved to let the warm northern waters clear away all the dirt and sweat and blood. They washed one another, and in doing so, they relearned each other's bodies; every scar, every curve and dip, the definition of every muscle. It wasn't quite the nervous exploration of the two young virgins who had first fallen in love eight years ago, but Harmony still felt a flutter of nerves in her chest as he touched her, and the tentativeness of his movements told her that it was the same for him.

Finally, Alistair lifted her up, and she wrapped her legs around his waist as he carried her back to one of the tents. She couldn't help but smile as she realized it would be their first time together in a tent since the blight. She could think of nothing more fitting for a reunion with the man she loved so fervently that it made her chest ache.

* * *

Harmony woke a few hours later feeling that everything was right again. Perhaps not  _completely_ right _,_ but like it had the potential to be. She was naked, her limbs tangled with her husband's, her head pillowed on his chest. He was snoring - a sound she hadn't ever imagined she would miss that now made her smile. She couldn't resist leaning her head up to press a kiss to his jaw, though she did feel guilty when doing so made him stir.

Alistair groaned. "Don't wake me. You might be just a dream, and then where will I be?"

Reaching up, she stroked a hand through his hair. "You think you dreamed up all these Qunari and pirates and weird magical happenings?"

"It  _might_ take a lot of stinky cheese to dream up  _that_ much strangeness _,_ true," he admitted sleepily, then opened one eyelid to look at her, the movement cautious as if he truly was worried she might be a dream.

"Hello," she said, sharing an oddly shy smile with him. She wasn't quite used to being naked with him after so long. "Are you… feeling all right?"

He kissed her forehead, his face revealing the pain that was still raw. "This turned out better than I'd hoped, worse than I'd feared. I have answers now. I'm ready to go home and be King."

She knew it wasn't quite that simple. Family meant a great deal to Alistair, which meant that losing even a father he had only known briefly had to be a great blow. Still, she had found him. She could comfort him. Together, they'd get through it.

* * *

When they arrived back at the the beach outside the fortress, they found it far emptier. The Qunari had moved inside to stake their claim to Ath Velanis, while Isabela's ship and the two dreadnoughts had moved to dock there. Their companions, however, were exactly where they'd last seen them; resting outside by the burnt out pyres, awaiting the return of the King and Queen of Ferelden.

Sol Castana was the first to see them approach. He was on his feet in an instant, hands clasped behind his back as he walked forward to greet them. "Queen of Hearts, I see you have found your King."

She nodded. "I have."

"That would mean it is time for our little agreement to reach its conclusion, yes? I have helped you complete your quest, now it is time for me to complete mine."

"Of course, I would have to be dead for that," Zevran quickly piped up.

"And I'm not about to let that happen," Harmony insisted, and the two shared a brief smile at the familiar words.

"We can duel for him again if you like," Sol suggested "Perhaps you'll fare better than the last time we attempted that, though if not..." He gave a cocky little shrug. "I don't think you can rely on a dragon to save the day like it did in Seleny."

"Duel? A dragon?" Alistair repeated, looking quite confused. "You were in Seleny?"

It was going to take Harmony and Alistair quite a while to catch up, she realized. Luckily, there would be a long voyage for them to fill with their stories. For now Sol was by far the more pressing issue. "I'll tell you later," she promised.

"And anyway," Zevran cut in. "If anyone is to duel you, it will be me. I owe Harmony my life, it's true, but it does not mean I cannot defend it for myself."

That seemed to please Sol greatly. "Crow on Crow, then. To the death?" he asked, drawing his sword.

Zevran grimaced. "Why not?" Not wasting a moment, he rushed in to attack, daggers in his hands almost faster than you could blink.

Harmony felt her heart begin to thud against her chest from the panic she felt for Zevran in that moment. On the day she'd met Sol, Zevran had warned her not to fight the man unless she had to. She'd experienced first-hand how fast the man was, how he seemed to dance through fights as if nothing could touch him. Zevran was a talented assassin, but she knew he was outmatched here.

Still, as the duel began, something strange happened. It was Zevran who was faster here, lighter on his feet. Sol glanced the elf's initial flurry aside, but the movements were sluggish, something Zevran quickly took advantage of with a kick to the knee that landed.

Harmony's brow furrowed in confusion. The Sol she knew was too quick for that, and far too sharp to be fooled so easily.

The confusion on Sol's face as he stumble to defend himself from Zevran's next attack confirmed that something wasn't quite right, and it wasn't until Harmony caught a glimpse of  _Zevran's_ face that she realized the elf had done something underhanded to level the playing field.

The fight continued for another minute or so, but it wasn't long before Zevran managed to disarm his opponent. Not wasting a breath, he barreled into the man, and then Sol was pinned beneath him, one dagger pressed to his throat.

Sol gasped to refill his lungs with air before gasping his accusation. "You cheated."

"I  _was_ quite surprised when you took that flask of rum I handed to you. Tsk, tsk, tsk, Sol. Don't tell me that travelling with these Fereldans has made you sloppy!" Zevran teased. "Oh, come now. What's a little poison between friends?"

"Hardly a fair fight, whoreson," Sol scoffed, even as Zevran pressed his blade in a bit more tightly, cutting the skin just enough to coax out a drop of blood.

"I have one important question for you, my friend." Zevran's voice turned deadly serious now, as he asked, "Am I worth dying for? Surely know that even if you slay me, my friends will not leave the death unanswered."

Sol sighed. "No. I doubt they would. Still, you have defeated me." It was clear in his tone that Sol had already resigned himself to death, even as he followed that with an insult. "You should finish it before you let your guard down like the rank amateur that you are."

Zevran just chuckled. "Scathing to the last," he hummed, then drew back his dagger as if about to slash open Sol's throat, right before he embedded the blade in the sand beside Sol's head.

Having closed his eyes at the last second, it took Sol a moment to reopen his eyes and glance to the side to realize what had happened. He narrowed his eyes at the blade, then looked up at Zevran in confusion.

"Or, you  _could_ consider joining an organization who won't answer failure with a knife across the throat," the elf suggested.

"What? Your  _Cani di Guerra_? I'd sooner die than become an assassin for Ferelden." One of his eyebrows quirked up then as he realized what Zevran was saying. "Or is that my choice?"

"Admittedly,  _Ferelden or death_  does not sound like much of a choice," Zevan laughed, ignoring the  _hey!_ that Alistair voiced. "But yes, it is the choice I give you now."

Sol fixed his gaze on the blade beside his head, taking what time he had to consider the offer before sighing out his answer. "So be it. You have my word," he eventually replied.

At that, Zevran reached into a pocket, pulled out a small vial, removed the stopper with his teeth and handed it to Sol before rolling back to his feet. Presumably it was the antidote to whatever he'd used to drug the man.

Harmony resisted the urge to roll her eyes. They'd be passing Antiva on their way back to Ferelden. There was plenty of time for Sol to go back on his word, and she trusted the man about as far as she could throw him.

All the same, Zevran seemed pleased. The elf looked up at Harmony, flashing his teeth in a broad grin. "It seems my little guild is beginning to take shape."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> One more chapter to go!


	18. Setting Sail

Harmony let two Qunari soldiers lead her up to the battlements after they'd gruffly voiced a request that she meet with their Arishok. There, she found the hornless qunari she would always think of as Sten staring out to sea with a grim expression.

"Your ally, the Tevinter mage, is combing through Titus' study. I would prefer that  _you_  ask her to leave. To my men, she is the enemy, protected only by her alliance with the Basalit-an rulers of Ferelden," he said as she moved to stand beside him. Below, Isabela's men were loading her ship with supplies for the journey home, while Qunari soldiers stood as still as statues as they watched from the docks.

"She'll be gone within the hour. We all will," Harmony promised with a nod. "Was that all you wanted to say?"

Sten paused for a long while, then said in a softer voice, "When we parted ways in Ferelden, I hoped it was the last time we would see each other. I could not imagine a way for us to meet again with a shared purpose."

"Not exactly a shared purpose when I asked you to keep my husband out of harm's way and you sailed him right into it," she complained, her tone half teasing, half reproachful.

"He proved himself to be Basalit-an," Sten retorted, as if that explained everything. When Harmony raised an eyebrow, he added, "He defeated me in a duel. My choice was to die, or to accompany him into battle. I chose the latter, and now my people have a new foothold in Seheron. Would you say I chose wrong?"

"No," she admitted, though her tone still conveyed her annoyance.

Sten's lips twitched that amused almost-smile she'd seen a few times before during their discussions. "It was good to see you again, Kadan."

"You too." Harmony smiled and bowed her head. "For what it's worth, I also hope we never meet again. At least, not without a  _shared purpose_ , as you put it. Farewell, Sten."

He opened his mouth as if about to correct her on the name, then closed it again before simply saying, "Farewell, Kadan."

* * *

The study was located in the tallest tower of Ath Velanis, and was unlike the dark underbelly of the fortress that Harmony had seen before. It was a fairly cozy space, walls lined with shelves holding dusty tomes and grimoires and a map of Seheron framed above a sturdy desk, where Maevaris sat. She wasn't alone, either. Varric and Alistair were with her, checking the spines of the books and occasionally reading their titles aloud to Maevaris in case there was anything that sounded promising to her.

"Maevaris," Harmony called gently as she stepped into the room. "The Qunari would prefer we moved on from this place as soon as possible. I think the rest of us would as well, really." The sooner the better, as far as Harmony was concerned. She didn't mention that the Qunari were also eager to be rid of them.

"One moment, if you don't mind," Maevaris answered, looking up at Harmony over the cover of a book she'd found.

"There's a fair bit of loot in here if it interests you," Varric said in a teasing tone. "The Champion of Kirkwall would have so much piled up in Isabela's cargo hold, we'd be worried about it floating."

Alistair held up a hand in a dismissive gesture. "We'll pass on the creepy Magister things, thanks."

"You might not wish to pass on  _all_  of it," Maevaris added, still not looking up from what she was currently reading.

"Why? What have you found?" asked Harmony.

"Nothing certain yet, but possibly something. This... is a very old book, and ancient Tevene isn't the easiest language to read. But... This is about the Old Gods, and the beginnings of the blight."

Harmony's eyebrows rose. "Is there anything useful for the Wardens in there?"

Maevaris considered it for a moment, tapping at her chin. "Possibly something  _extraordinarily_ useful... I'll need some more time with it."

Alistair's brows knit into a frown, and he stared off into space as he murmured, "Titus said something strange in the Fade. He said... something about how the Magisters might have succeeded in the Golden City. It was vague though."

"And the demons didn't exactly make it a nice, quiet chat," Maevaris added, smirking just slightly.

"Can you study it on the ship?" Harmony asked.

"I can try. There's a few other books I'd like to bring with us. This knowledge shouldn't have been in Titus' hands, certainly, but that doesn't mean I wish to leave it to the Qunari either."

Harmony nodded. "Whatever you need us to carry back."

Those were words she soon came to regret, as only a few minutes later, of them were making their way down the spiralling staircase of the main tower, arms filled with about as many books as they could carry between them.

"Only for you, Mae," Varric grumbled, mostly to himself. "I  _write_  books, I don't usually carry them like a loaded up bronto."

"We have some of your work in the palace library, in fact," Harmony told the dwarf. "I've heard Lady Anora say good things about Hard in Hightown. She's less keen on Swords and Shields."

"Anora…" Familiarity with the name was clear in the Kirkwaller's gravelly voice. "Wasn't she the Queen?"

"She's… our ward now. And sort of a friend. It's complicated," Alistair explained, wobbling a bit as he struggled not to drop the stack of books tucked under his chin.

"How do you and Maevaris know one another?" Harmony asked as they continued down the tower.

"She married my cousin Thorold after they met through some lyrium deals. Kind of eccentric for a highborn Tevinter to marry a dwarf but… Mae's kind of eccentric, I guess."

"Thank you, darling," Maevaris hummed, her voice less strained than everyone else's since her own stack of books was rather small.

"I'll tell you one thing, if she says she can help you, she's not kidding," Varric added. " _Most_  of these books are going to be put to good use."

"Only most of them?" Harmony inquired.

Varric smirked. "It's Mae. There's every possibility she added a few more just to see Alistair flex his muscles."

Maevaris giggled. "Hush, Varric! Don't spoil it."

"Oh, great…" Alistair sighed. "These  _are_ actually heavy, you know?"

* * *

Once the ship was loaded, it wasn't long before they set sail. Qarinus first to take Maevaris home, and then on towards Ferelden. A long voyage, to be sure, but much faster than getting to Seheron in the first place had been, given all the stops along the way.

Isabela played the role of Captain well, barking orders and insults at her men. Keeping everyone sharp was important in the waters surrounding the disputed territory, doubly so with a reduced crew. Still, Harmony could recognize a performance when she saw one. Isabela still wasn't quite herself since Qunari capture.

Them taking Isabela's ship had been Harmony's fault. Sten had warned her what would happen if his people found the pirate queen, but Harmony hadn't seen another choice. All she'd wanted was to keep Alistair out of Titus' reach - to keep her husband safe and their enemy from gaining the power in his blood. Isabela had been the price of that, and now that they were heading home, Harmony knew that she couldn't make it all the way back to Ferelden without coming clean first.

Once the ship was on course, Isabela went to the stern to lean on the railing and stare back at the coast of Seheron as it vanished from sight. Harmony moved to stand beside her and took a deep breath before she began to confess that everything that had happened was her fault, and that she had known beforehand that the Qunari would not be kind.

"I'm sorry," she added to the end of it, the word feeling like it was hardly enough to make up for anything. Harmony had to say it all the same.

Isabela just stared out at the waves, keeping perfectly still as she took in what Harmony had told her. It was a good few minutes before either of them spoke again. When she couldn't stand the silence any longer, Harmony murmured, "I wish you'd say something."

"What doesn't kill you makes you stronger," Isabela sighed. "That's what they say, isn't it?"

"Doesn't mean it doesn't leave you shaken for a while first," Harmony pointed out. She'd been proof of that when this journey of theirs began. "Look, I want to make it up to you. If there's anything I can do…"

It was a while before Isabela spoke again, and when she did it was in a very low un-captainly voice. "It doesn't matter now. My crew are being paid handsomely for bringing Alistair all this way. You did what you had to do, and the Qunari did what they always do. I'll live." At that, Isabela shrugged and turned to walk away.

Varric appeared at the top of the stairs to the upper deck just in time for Isabela to push past him, and a moment later he and Harmony heard the door to the Captain's cabin slam shut.

"She… needs time," the dwarf said ruefully.

"There's going to be a whole lot of that between here and Ferelden," Harmony noted.

"Yeah…" Varric sighed. "Who knows? Maybe I'll write all of this down. I'm sure I can find  _some_ way to make this shit believable," he half-laughed.

"Would you mind not mentioning me if you decide to tell that tale? My party went to great trouble to make sure nobody ever saw me leaving Ferelden."

"As it is, I'm not sure your people are going to want to know what really happened to Maric." Varric shuddered. "Makes my skin itch to think how many years he was chained to that thing."

Harmony could only nod in agreement. "It should be Alistair's choice who to tell."

"You know, the way he avoided talking about you early on, I figured maybe the Tale of the Warden exaggerated the parts about the romance. Two Wardens in love on their own against a blight is a damn good story, you have to admit." He paused to scratch at the stubble on his face. "It took me a while to realize he was worried you'd never forgive him for leaving."

She shook her head. "He should have known that I'd come for him. I'd walk into the void itself for him."

"And not let me write about it," Varric grumbled in good humour.

Harmony had to laugh. "I'd at least want a cut of the profits."

Varric laughed too. "The amount Alistair's paying Isabela's crew for this little quest? You might need one."

* * *

Later, when the sun was setting and land was far from sight, Harmony found Nathaniel and Ser Ellin standing near the prow. Ellin, of course, had gone there to throw up over the side as soon as they'd hit open water. Now Nathaniel was distracting her with conversation while she tried to keep her gaze fixed on the horizon.

"I feel like every time I turn around, you two are standing side by side," Harmony noted as she moved to stand beside them.

"We are… simply good friends," Nathaniel insisted, giving a slightly awkward cough as he did.

The pursing of her lips suggested Harmony didn't believe him. "You're  _sure_ there's nothing I should know about?"

At that, Ellin gave a rare smile. "There is, but not in the way you're thinking." When Harmony looked confused at that, Ellin's gaze moved down to where her hands rested against the ship's railing. "I am considering joining the Grey Wardens."

Harmony's eyes widened. "Oh!"

Nathaniel's lips twitched in amusement. It was rare to see Harmony surprised, after all. "I can't tell her everything to expect, of course, but she had a taste of it first-hand in the Deep Roads."

"And when I fought in the battle of Denerim. Besides, there are certain things I know just from guarding you through all of this, your Majesty," Ellin added, and Harmony didn't need to be reminded which ones. Harmony's melancholy over losing her child and over her destiny to die fighting darkspawn had been difficult to conceal. "In spite of what I know, I feel…  _called._ To dedicate my life to something meaningful."

"The Wardens couldn't ask for a finer soldier, that's for certain," Harmony assured her friend with a pat on the shoulder, her feelings as bittersweet as when Oghren had chosen to join the Order. And you couldn't ask for a finer Warden Commander," she added with a nod to Nathaniel.

"We've still a long journey ahead of us. Plenty of time for Ellin to decide against the idea, and for you to decide you're not ready to give up your Command just yet," Nathaniel pointed out.

"I think that's unlikely," Harmony said with a reluctant smile.

"As do I," said Ellin.

At that, Harmony let out a dramatic sigh. "Whatever am I going to do without my trusty bodyguard?"

Ellin considered that for a moment, then said, "With all due respect, your Majesty, I don't think you ever needed a bodyguard."

The hand on Ellin's shoulder squeezed it. "But I did need a friend."

"It's been an honour, your majesty," Ellin replied, bowing her head.

Now Harmony grinned. "And on the bright side, Wardens don't have to travel on ships very often."

That made Ellin groan. "Don't remind me!"

* * *

Harmony made her way back to her cabin, eager to return to Alistair's side even though she knew he was sleeping. As she crossed the deck, a knife whistled through the air as it flew past her head and embedded itself in the deck before her feet. Harmony's lips twitched and she turned and drew her daggers just in time to fend off an attack from up in the rigging.

Zevran flashed his teeth in a grin as their blades clashed together. "Just keeping you on your toes, my dear," he assured her.

Harmony danced back, then started to circle Zevran with nimble steps. "Maybe I should be doing the same for you. Are you  _really_ sure that Sol isn't lying when he says he'll join you?"

"Oh, he is absolutely lying. But..." he paused as he easily dodged Harmony's follow-up attack. "It's a long way back to Ferelden. Plenty of time for a man to change his mind."

Their blades clashed several more times, and then Harmony jumped out of the way to avoid a low kick from Zevran before asking, "Are you so certain he'll change his mind?"

"You may recall I have lived his side of the tale, my dear grey warden," he said as they began to circle each other again. "At first you say what you need to say to survive. Then you find the kind of acceptance that did not exist among the Crows. Then you never let go of it."

He'd dodged every one of her attacks so far, but he didn't quite know what to do with himself as Harmony paused, then quickly sheathed her blades and threw her arms around him. For a moment he stilled, but then his daggers clattered to the deck and he hugged her back. "A good thing too, considering how easy it is to get you to let your guard down. Tsk, tsk, you will need to work on that."

"I think I'm doing just fine," she murmured, still squeezing her dear friend. It was a while before she let him go.

When the hug did end, Zevran quickly retrieved his daggers, then dipped into a flourishing bow. "Come now, you have a husband to return to, and I have every intention of seeing what I can do to cheer up my dear friend Isabela. I suspect it will be a busy night for both of us, no?" That, he couldn't manage to say without grinning widely.

Harmony had to laugh even as she rolled her eyes at the elf. "We'd better not keep them waiting then."

* * *

Days at sea passed. Harmony and Alistair spent much of it together in their cabin, making up for lost time and swapping stories of their separate journeys north. Later in the voyage they would speak of their stillborn child and of the father Alistair had lost, but it wasn't quite time for the difficult conversations yet. For now the comfort of one another's company was the most important thing.

When the ship reached Qarinus, the time came to part ways with Maevaris. No one thought it was a good idea for Isabela's ship to stay given that the last time they'd docked there, it had ended with them fighting off Titus' men in the middle of a Magister's party - one of the stories Alistair had told Harmony about during their long talks in the cabin.

As it was, they said their goodbyes there on the docks. Just as Harmony turned to follow the others back up the gangplank, Maevaris grabbed her by the wrist to tug her to a halt, then pressed a book into her hand - one that seemed to have a letter tucked into the front of it. "Everything I could find is in the letter, but I'm leaving this book with you just in case, dear," was all she said before kissing Harmony on the cheek, then letting her footman lead her over to a waiting carriage.

"That was... odd," Varric noted once Harmony joined him on the deck, Maevaris' book clasped to her chest. Harmony could only nod in agreement.

She spent the next few hours by herself in the cabin, reading and re-reading Maevaris' letter, and poring through the accompanying tome. What Maevaris had found… it wasn't much to go on, admittedly, but it pointed to something significant. Harmony had never seen so much as a hint at the possibility before.

Night had fallen by the time she emerged from below deck. It was a clear night, a blanket of stars above them, the moonlight's reflection sparkling in the calm water. Alistair sat alone on the deck at the prow of the ship, his back to the railing, staring up at the stars apparently lost in thought.

He brightened when he saw Harmony and patted the spot beside him to encourage her to sit. "You've got that little line, just here," he said, tapping a finger to the spot between his eyebrows. "That means you've had that serious, thinky face on. Is it about what Maevaris gave you?"

"I  _don't_  have a line," she insisted, linking hands with him as she moved to sit beside him.

"It's a  _cute_  line," he assured her, then quickly leaned in to kiss the spot above her nose as if to prove it. "Are you going to tell me what was in the letter?"

"It's a clue," she murmured. "A starting point. Maevaris thinks there might be a way to cure the taint."

A range of emotions passed quickly over Alistair's face. Those words held great meaning to both of them. As it stood, the pair of them were likely to leave on their Calling before long, leaving Ferelden without a ruler or an heir to the throne. Given all the unrest of recent years, that was the last thing it needed. What was more, neither of them particularly wanted to die alone fighting darkspawn in the Deep Roads. No Warden did, though most came to accept it as their duty.

"It's all so vague. I don't know if it's blood magic or some artefact or something. I could pay Avernus a visit when we get back to Ferelden, I suppose. Or I could lead an expedition to the Deep Roads to see if the architect knows anything. I could-"

"Harmony," Alistair interrupted in a soft, saddened voice. "Is that really what you want? To vanish again the moment we get back to Ferelden? If you lead an expedition to the Deep Roads, I couldn't follow. Not so soon after disappearing to chase after Maric."

Harmony's face fell as she realized that was true. "No. You couldn't."

A silence fell between them. This seemed significant enough to take seriously considering what it could mean for Ferelden and for the Wardens, but Harmony had only just found Alistair.

"This is too important to ignore," she pointed out. "This could change  _everything."_

Without warning, Alistair grasped her face with both hand and kissed her deeply. It was a kiss that left her breathless, one that let her know in no uncertain terms just how much he cared for her, how much he  _needed_ her.

"Alistair…" she breathed as he released her.

"I want to have children with you. I want to grow old with you. I want us to die in our beds surrounded by loved ones, not deep underground being torn apart by darkspawn. If there's even a  _chance_  for that to happen, then we have to take it, for Ferelden as well as ourselves. But…" He closed his eyes and leaned in close so that their foreheads were pressed together. "We don't have to take it  _yet_. Please. We only just found each other again. Let someone else start the search. Come home with me."

Harmony hadn't realized she was crying until she felt his thumb brush away a tear. "Home," she repeated, voice no more than a whisper. "Yes. I'd like that."

Alistair squeezed her close, and she let her head fall to rest against his shoulder. She would have to leave to join that search in time - there was too much at stake not to involve herself. Maybe it wouldn't be for another year or two, but her duty and desperation would win eventually, and then she would have to leave Alistair's side again, hopefully only for a while.

For now, that didn't matter. They had each other. They had a love that had proven it could endure any separation. For now, they were going home to be together.

* * *

**The End.**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> That's the end of Harmony's tale. She'll be off looking for a cure for the taint during the events of Inquisition. With any luck, she'll find it and be able to return to Alistair's side, but that's sorta up to Bioware, not me.
> 
> Anyway, I hope you liked the story. Thanks so so so much to everyone who read it all the way through! Special thanks to Doorbellspider for being the first to read every chapter and for keeping me motivated to finally finish.
> 
> Also, if you'd like to read about another badass rogue with daggers, please consider checking out my Inquisition fic: Modest in Temper, Bold in Deed.


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